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March 28, 2007

Carroll jury begins deliberations

No verdict reached late Wednesday; jurors return today

Matthew Hill

FAYETTEVILLE — Following nearly six hours of deliberations, jurors adjourned without a verdict Wednesday evening in the murder trial of Robert Eugene Carroll in connection with the death 21 years ago of his estranged wife in Montgomery Heights.

Fayette County Circuit Judge John Hatcher told the group of 12 to return to his courtroom at 9 a.m. today to resume their contemplation of the fate of the 63-year-old Charlton Heights man. Hatcher told jurors his bailiff was guarding the deliberation room and that the door to the room would remain locked until their return.

It was a penultimate end to a day in which defense attorney Ed Rebrook abruptly rested his case without calling a witness.

No sooner had state witness and Sheriff Bill Laird stepped down from the witness stand and assistant prosecutor Brian Parsons announced the conclusion of the state’s case that Rebrook stood and proclaimed, “The defense rests.”

Carroll is accused of hiring Eddie Queen, 59, of Cross Lanes, to murder Cathy Faye Carroll when she returned home from work on April 22, 1986.

Queen was arrested last October on charges of first-degree murder and first-degree sexual assault in connection with the case. Prosecutors now portray Carroll as an accomplice rather than the actual killer, now alleged to be Queen.

Jurors were given three options — first-degree murder, first-degree murder with a recommendation of mercy and not guilty. While the first carries with it a life sentence and no chance of parole, Carroll would be eligible for parole after 10 years under the second choice.

Laird was Wednesday’s sole witness. His testimony was followed closely by closing arguments.

Parsons reminded the jury of several statements allegedly made by Carroll in the time period leading up to Cathy Carroll’s untimely death — that he would see her in hell before she divorced him and that he had sufficient money to have her killed.

“When you look at those statements and look at the following conduct (the murder), they aren’t just irresponsible. They are prophecies,” Parsons charged.

“That train (the Carrolls’ imminent divorce) was leaving the station on April 22. The hour glass was turned over. It was D Day. He told Pam (Pamela Drennen Cummings, Carroll’s stepdaughter at the time) to get used to not having a mom. He told Cathy, ‘I can do whatever I want. You can’t prove it in court. Your children are too small to testify.’”

According to Parsons, no one but Carroll would have apparent motive for seeing Cathy dead. He also had the means, Parsons said, recalling that two different state witnesses testified they were each offered $5,000 on two separate occasions to kill her.

“Have a tooth problem? You go to a dentist. Flat tire? You go to the mechanic. You want your wife killed? You go to Charlie Keenan and Demarcus H. Smith III (the two witnesses). What in the world was Gene Carroll doing talking to these people?” the assistant prosecutor queried.

Parsons accused Rebrook of “deviling the heck” out of Cummings when she was on the witness stand Tuesday, adding the defense lawyer utilized “cute lawyering and tricky questioning” when he confronted her with seemingly conflicting statements she gave police over the last two decades. He concluded with an appeal to Cathy’s memory.

“We take for granted a lot of the things we have in life. Gene Carroll used holidays as a future threat (that he would kill Cathy on various holidays),” he noted.

“There are no pictures of Cathy Faye Carroll on the mantle at Pam Drennen’s house with grandkids at Christmas five years ago or a graduation. He (Gene) didn’t threaten her (Cathy) — he promised. The (act) was committed by Eddie Queen and sealed with the blood of Cathy Faye Carroll.”

Rebrook countered the state built its case on a proverbial pile of stones, using as a visual aid a container of rocks that he poured out on the prosecution’s table. “Wisdom is built of knowledge as a house is built of stones,” he declared, quoting a plaque his father gave him upon graduation from law school.

“A pile of stones is not a house, and the state presented you with a pile of stones. Nowhere does (Cummings) say that Eddie Queen was her mother’s killer, but the state had to find someone else (due to Carroll’s alibi). She wants someone convicted and doesn’t care who it is.”

Rebrook assailed the various testimonies given by Cummings, Laird and Brent Walker.

Why, he asked rhetorically, would there be nothing in several hundred pages of a police report about Cummings citing Queen as the perpetrator? Additionally, why was Walker’s purported sighting of Carroll and Queen talking together on the afternoon of Cathy’s murder absent?

“’We know that he has the ability to compress the least amount of thought from the greatest amount of words. The state has done this,” Rebrook thundered, quoting Winston Churchill’s appraisal of an opponent in the British parliament.

“I have always loved justice and hated injustice. Nothing bothers me more than the thought of someone being convicted of a crime they didn’t do. What has happened to Gene Carroll has been a tragedy. A cloud has hung over him all these years, and he has suffered mightily. Remove that cloud and let the sun shine again on Gene Carroll.”

— E-mail:

mhill@register-herald.com

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