A Glouster man imprisoned since Friday confessed Wednesday morning that he killed his father, but law enforcement officials are skeptical to accept his testimony.
“(Paul J. Roberts) made a statement that was recorded, (but) we also have all the evidence we’ve gathered,” Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn said of his office’s investigation. “Those statements have some contradictions in them.”
Tuesday, he added that “depending on the investigation, (the case) could be death penalty eligible” in a text message to The Post; however, because the case is still under investigation, he declined to comment further or to disclose the information his office gathered.
Roberts, 40, was arrested at his 68 Locust St. residence in Glouster on one count of vandalism, a fifth-degree felony. He is being held in the Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail on a $100,000 bond.
The Glouster Police Department, with the assistance of Blackburn’s office and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, among others, issued search warrants on the property and found Roberts’ father, Paul E. Roberts, 63, dead in a well underneath the back porch Monday.
The coroner’s preliminary ruling deemed Roberts’ cause of death blunt force trauma; he had not been seen for two weeks, according to a news release from Blackburn’s office.
The younger Roberts told WBNS-10TV, a Columbus news station, that he and his father were arguing and that the altercation turned physical; his father grabbed a knife, so he “grabbed a (heavy pipe) and just swung it.”
He added that he realized his father was dead, so he did not bother to seek medical assistance.
“I drug him (outside). I saw the well and said, ‘Well I’ll just drop him down that and he’ll just be gone and it’ll all be OK,’” he said. “I wasn’t thinking — it wasn’t real to me.”
Rhonda Degarmore, the younger Roberts’ girlfriend, is in custody on a probation violation; it is unclear whether or not she was involved in the alleged murder.
His vandalism sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 4, where he will be sentenced on other crimes including theft, drug possession and grand theft of a motor vehicle, according to court documents.
Besides the grand theft charge, a fourth-degree felony, all charges are of the fifth-degree.
Blackburn declined to comment on how Roberts’ murder charge will affect his overall sentencing.
Although it is unclear whether the incident is related to the theft of a vehicle charge, Roberts’ father’s 2004 black Jeep Liberty had been “improperly transported,” possibly to an area near Columbus, according to the release.
The case will be presented to a grand jury Oct. 28, according to court documents.
Until then, Roberts will remain incarcerated, and said he frequently recalls the event.
“I’m a monster. I’m horrible. I love my father, and I took his life,” he said in his statement to WBNS-TV. “Nothing will ever be right ever again.”
kf398711@ohiou.edu
@KellyPFisher
