Posted on 06/02/2003 10:44:57 AM PDT by Henrietta
A 42-year-old police officer was convicted of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a man during an off-duty fight last fall.
Ronald Robbins, a 15-year veteran of the police department in the Volusia County community of Edgewater, said he fired his personal .22-caliber pistol as a last resort to save his own life during a fight with the victim and another man on a Daytona Beach street Sept. 22.
Robbins will face at least 25 years in prison when he is sentenced July 9. His attorney said he'll appeal the verdict, which the jury reached after deliberating about an hour Friday.
Prosecutors said Robbins shot 22-year-old Jason Starkey in the back after the 4:30 a.m. fight ended. Starkey and a 21-year-old friend had started to walk away.
(Excerpt) Read more at heraldtribune.com ...
There are few details in the article, but perhaps he was not the only one who got what he deserved.
Its a lot less surprising when you read the last sentence in the article -- "Robbins is also accused of trying while in jail to hire someone to kill Feigenbaum." Feigenbaum was the prosecutor.
It sounds like he started to fall apart under the threat of prosecution and made a very poor decision. I wonder why they didn't report more details of the fight that led to the murder.
Robbins was arrested for shooting a man who was a suspect in another murder. Then a friend of Robbins' was busted plotting to kill the state attorney assigned to the case.
According to witnesses, Robbins, the victim (Jason Stukey) and his friend were arguing in a convenience store parking lot. It was around 4 am. Two of the men were drunk. It got ugly fast. It started to get physical when Jason Stukey tried to get inside Robbins' mini-van, assaulting him. Robbins tried to get away, but the young man wouldn't let go. Then it was an all-out brawl.
I don't see how they arrived at 2nd degree murder. I wonder if race was a factor in the prosecution.
"The jury will not be told that Robbins' friend, Renee Jones, 40, was charged in November with trying to hire a hit man to kill Feigenbaum. Investigators have been unable to link Robbins to that case. Jones faces 30 years in prison if convicted."
As for the state's informant, "The state conceded that Fisher lost his credibility when he was charged with carjacking an elderly couple and leading police on a high-speed chase just weeks after he was granted bail."
Details, details. Lets just say that if the prosecutor was considering whether or not to drop the case, this might have tilted his decision.
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