I, The Juror
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Globe Crime Extra
"I, The Juror"
Our man tells what it's like sitting on murder jury in case of Viet vet who was knifed to death.
In my mind's eye, I can still see the chilling videotape of Roy Thompson's confession - the accused killer demonstrating exactly how he twisted a knife into a helpless man's throat to snuff out his life. Yet, as foreman of the jury in Thompson's trial, I helped deliver a stunning verdict that rocked Judge Jorge La Barga's Palm Beach County courthouse.
Typically, the true-crime stories I write for GLOBE are sensational cases involving serial killers and other perverse or infamous fiends. Though no less gripping, Thompson's second-degree murder trial was a more common example of crime in America - three guys get drunk in a local bar, brawl over something stupid and one of them winds up dead.
The victim was Raymond Robb, a lonely 54-year-old Vietnam War vet who ended a boozy night lying in a pool of his own blood on the floor of his one-room motel apartment.
The prosecution's star witness was flooring installer Barrett Phelps, 29. Thompson's supposed partner in crime. Phelps was nabbed first and, heading up the river without a paddle, struck a deal with the state in which his life sentence would be reduced to 15 years in exchange for his testimony against Thompson, 25.
Phelps wouldn't admit to dealing the fatal wounds, but he did confess to viciously bashing Robb in the head with a wooden pole and later using the dead man's cell phone to call 900 sex lines to "cheer myself up after all that happened."
