Roberts found guilty in bowling alley abduction case

Clark County

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Peter Allen Roberts Sr.

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August 24, 2012

Roberts found guilty in bowling alley abduction case

Jeffersonville man faces maximum of 14 years

By GARY POPP gary.popp@newandtribune.com The News and Tribune Fri Aug 24, 2012, 08:00 AM EDT

JEFFERSONVILLE — After more than five hours of deliberation, the jury in the Peter Allen Roberts Sr. trial found the Jeffersonville man guilty on all counts stemming from the 2010 attempted abduction of then 24-year-old Elizabeth Davey.

Roberts, of the 3000 block of Middle Road, faces a maximum of 14 years in prison for the conviction of intimidation, a class D felony, battery committed by means of a deadly weapon or resulting in serious bodily injury, a class C felony, and criminal confinement, a class D felony.

Roberts was found guilty on charges resulting from an altercation in the parking lot of Blackiston Bowl at 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 16, 2010.

The prosecution argued that Roberts grabbed Davey, dragged her to his pickup truck and forced her into the cab of the vehicle where he then placed a rope noose around her neck while threatening her with a knife.

The verdict was read at 7:20 p.m. after virtually all court employees had gone home for the day and proceedings in the surrounding courts had come to a close hours earlier.

“The jurors were very careful with their deliberation,” Clark County deputy prosecutor Matthew Lemme said after the deliberation was read by Clark County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Moore.

Lemme said the nature of the altercation between Roberts and Davey and the crimes committed were virtually beyond belief.

“The case was shocking, amazing and what happened was unbelievable,” he said. “Regardless of the evidence, the jury was going to have to struggle.”

Roberts’ attorney Andrew Adams said, despite the verdict, he is confident his client was attempting to offer assistance to the distressed Davey, not cause her harm.

“I believe his innocence, and I still believe that today,” Adams said.

Some of the nearly dozen friends and family members of Roberts in the courtroom during the reading of the verdict erupted in tears and disbelief as a bailiff placed handcuffs on Roberts, who wore a pink polo shirt and a gold crucifix around his neck during the third and final day of the trial.

Following Moore’s instruction to the bailiff to take Roberts into custody, his group of supporters, including his sons and wife, made a rash exit from the courtroom and continued into the courts’ empty hallway, loudly voicing their disapproval of the jury’s decision.

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Both Davey and Roberts had been in Blackiston Bowl Friday night and early Saturday morning bowling and drinking beer.

The two were not acquaintances, however. Davey said the first time she saw Roberts was when he held the door open for her as she left the bowling alley, seconds before the attempted abduction began.

While Davey testified Wednesday that she was assaulted and carried off by Roberts after taking a few steps from the entrance of the bowling alley, Roberts claimed he found the woman lying in the parking lot and walked her into the safety of his truck.

Roberts said he intended on getting her into the vehicle then calling police for help.

Davey claims the noose was placed tightly around her neck after she was forced on the floorboard of the pick up truck.

Roberts testified that she had the noose around her neck when he found her, but that he did not realize the noose was around her neck until after the two walked to the pick up truck, he helped her to the front seat and she slid down onto the floorboard and told him she could not breathe.

Roberts said he first became aware of the noose when he reached down to see what might have been impairing her breathing.

Davey said Roberts held a knife to her throat as he wrestled her into the truck.

She said she pleaded to him to let her free, telling him she had a 1-year-old son to care for.

Her testimony included Roberts saying, “Can you feel that?,” as the knife was held against her.

From the witness stand Roberts said he accidentally cut her with his pocket knife as he attempted to cut the noose, although the rope has no signs of being cut.

The scene came to a stop when two men opened the passenger-side door of the truck and pulled Roberts from Davey.

One of the men, Robert Schuler, said he held Roberts in a bear hug until Clarksville police arrived.

Lemme said what he was most moved by during the three-day trial was the testimony of Schuler and his selfless reaction to stop the knife-weilding Roberts.

Schuler told police that when he opened the door Roberts screamed to, “Go away.”

During closing arguments Thursday, Lemme called the defense “absurd” and “impossible.”

Lemme impressed upon the jurors that someone wanting to help another person would not have told Schuler and the other man to go away, but to go get help.

Lemme asked the jurors to recognize the improbability of Roberts’ statements that Davey didn’t have the ability to hold herself up in the passenger-side seat of the pick up truck, but moments later, when Roberts was confronted by Schuler and another man, the young woman was suddenly able to run from the vehicle toward the bowling alley as she took the noose from her neck.

During his closing arguments, Adams urged the jury to consider that Roberts’ story has been consistent for nearly two years.

Adams said when the altercation is viewed from a broad perspective, it can be seen that Roberts was trying to help Davey.

The defense lawyer continued his argument by telling the jurors that after he was placed in handcuffs, Roberts told police again and again their suspicion of him was a mistake.

Before adjourning the trial, Moore scheduled Roberts’ sentencing hearing for Sept. 19.