The Case of Paula Roberts, Part 1: David Willoughby

Mar 1

A quaint country ice cream shop has a violent intrusion

On a quiet country road, nestled in the trees just 8 miles north of the bustling streets of Augusta, Maine, sat an ice cream shop known as Summer Haven.

In the early 80’s, Summer Haven was a hole in the wall spot that served ice cream year-round, and offered travelers a quick bite for the road with pizza and sandwiches. The vinyl booths offered a place to stop and rest, and there were a few pinball and video games to pass the time.

It was December 3rd, 1983—a Saturday night around 8pm, and things were fairly quiet, but that’s usually how it was in winter. A routine day in what was supposed to be an uneventful weekend. Summer Haven kept afloat with lotto ticket and cigarette sales during the winter when ice cream sales dropped off in the colder months.

21-year-old Paula Roberts, who was a senior at the University of Maine in Farmington, was working alone while a sole customer, 19-year-old Dixon Smith enjoyed a pizza. His back was to the counter where Paula quietly watched the clock get closer to closing by the minute. She busied herself with cleaning chores as she waited for the next customer.

Suddenly, the bell on the front door rang, interrupting Lionel Richie’s All Night Long... Dixon hadn’t even looked up when out of nowhere, he was struck on the back the head twice with a blunt object. Hard. “Lay down the booth and do not get up,” a male voice instructed. Dixon guessed there were 2 men in the room and followed orders; his head was throbbing.

Dixon heard a man demand that Paula hand over all the cash in the register. Paula was a fearless and athletic young woman and you could tell that she didn’t think much of these thugs. She was a fighter, and she wasn’t about to take verbal abuse. “If you want it, get it yourself.” She quipped back.

The unknown men took 36 lottery tickets and about $4,100 in cash, which is almost $12,000 today.

During the hurried scuffle, Dixon heard Paula cry out in pain and ask “What did you do that for?” As he huddled in the booth, his head pounding and dizzy, Paula’s defiant demeanor slowly started to fade. Something had changed. No matter how tough Paula was, she was no match for two big men with weapons.

He heard her scream, “For God’s sake, please help!” as the men pushed her outside. And then silence… the door closed, letting in a final draft of December chill. The cheerful start of Uptown Girl eerily haunted the empty shop as the red tail lights to the robber’s car drove away with Paula inside.

The search for Paula Roberts

After making a call to the police, Dixon was treated at the hospital and released. Right away, the search for Paula Roberts had begun. Over the next few days, scores of volunteers showed up to help find her.

On Monday December 5th, The State Police joined the effort and set up a mobile command post in Summer Haven’s parking lot while the shop (that doubled as the command center for the investigation) was combed for clues and prints. By December 7th, with few clues to Paula’s whereabouts, the FBI joined in, and the following day, as many as 600 volunteers broke up into small teams and spread out in all directions for 20 miles—searching icy roads, woods, and campgrounds—while the National Guard began an air search that proved to be unfruitful. Ground searchers were looking for a red bag with lottery tickets, a zippered brown money bag, or any trace of Paula herself.

The state police interviewed people. Two witnesses would later testify they saw a light-colored car with headlights on backed into a parking spot with the engine running near the front door. Another witness driving by on Route 27 told police they saw two unknown men leaving the store who “appeared to be forcing a female into the vehicle.” They described one of the suspects as quite large in height and stature. Police were working on trying to get a composite drawn up of the men in question.

UMF students were also doing their part and helping raise a reward fund for information leading to Paula’s whereabouts. They’d collected more than $6k, which is about $17k today. Her brother, Harland, told the press:

“We love Paula a lot. And she loves us. I will not accept anything but getting her back. I'm still sure we’ll get her back. I feel whoever has her, will let her go sooner or later.”

But as the days turn into weeks, the family was forced to have to face the possibility of spending the Christmas holiday without her. Harland told the BDN,

“I was just thinking today if Paula were here, she’d be calling us or stopping over about now and wanting to take my boys and Bobby’s kids Christmas shopping. She was always doing something like that.”

Christmas and New Year’s came and went. The nights grew colder and the snow piled higher... and there was still no sign of Paula.

Who was Paula Roberts?

Paula Roberts grew up in the Belgrade area and came from a close-knit, large family. She graduated from Messalonskee High School in Oakland in 1980. It’s clear from her senior yearbook that she was a high achiever, and enjoyed sports year-round: field hockey in the fall (where she doubled as the varsity team manager), basketball in the winter, and then softball in the spring. She also was in the ski club, French club, the debate team, and on the student council. Her quote in the Messalonskee yearbook provides a little insight into her sense of humor: “If Edison didn’t invent the light bulb, we’d be watching TV by candle light.”

Later, when she was enrolled at college, she helped coach a junior varsity team at Jay High School as she was earning a degree in education—a career where Paula would have excelled. Graduation was merely months away—she was getting ready to begin her final semester.

It's clear that she was loved by her family. Paula’s middle name, Marie, matched her mother June’s. There’s a photo of her and her father, Lawrence, in a tight embrace included on the blog at murdershetold.com—his sweet smile was filled with joy and his eyes sparkle with pride. I would guess she was the apple of her father’s eye.

But I don’t know much about Paula Roberts. The news coverage of her case didn’t reveal much about her, and I wasn’t able to connect with her family by the time of this recording. The small amount I was able to glean from photos, quotes, and yearbook entries is just a small fraction of the person she was. If you knew Paula, I would love to connect with you and learn a little more about her and honor her life. Feel free to reach out to me at hello@murdershetold.com.

The Kennebec Journal gets a surprise call

Around midnight on the night of January 6th, 1984, a little over a month after Paula’s abduction, a woman named Joyce Willoughby left a message with the night crew at the Kennebec Journal. She had information about Paula Roberts. When Scott Gibson, the Kennebec Journal’s city editor arrived the next morning around 9am, he sent reporter Linda Buskin to the Willoughby home to scope out the lead.

Upon arrival to the home in Randolph, Linda and another reporter were introduced to 26-year-old David Willoughby. David was afraid to talk because of his criminal record, fearing he would be wrongfully linked to the crime, but he couldn’t bear to live any longer with what he knew. With the understanding that his name wouldn’t go to print, David agreed to tell them his story.

The evening of December 3rd, David drove his mother Joyce’s car to a friend’s home in Augusta to drink. When the beer ran out, the two unnamed friends took the car to the store to buy more while David waited at the home. An hour and a half later, they returned, agitated, very drunk, and scared... and one of them dropped a bombshell: They robbed a store and killed a girl. David said,

“his friend was flipping out. He was almost hysterical. He told me he had robbed a store and couldn't leave no witnesses. He said he couldn't leave no witnesses seven times. I tried to get him to tell me what he meant. He jumbled through it. He had blood on his shoes. I didn't really believe it. I didn’t want to."

David even cleaned up blood from the backseat and windows of the car, and it wasn’t until he heard news reports that following night about Paula’s abduction that the reality finally started to settle in.

He said his friend had killed Paula because she, quote, “got smart with him.” So they threw her in the car and drove off to a desolate area, walked her up a bank and that’s where they killed her.

Three days later, with an idea of where the supposed body could be found, David went to see for himself. After that, he couldn’t sleep. He was plagued with nightmares; haunted by what he saw, and what his friend told him happened. David’s mental health deteriorated, and he became suicidal. He sought psychiatric treatment at the Augusta Mental Health Institute.

David insisted he had nothing to do with it. It was his drunk friends who had his mother’s car. They were the ones who had killed Paula, and he had been thrust in the middle of it. He wished they’d never even told him. He said, “If God is my only witness, he knows I didn’t do it.”

The Kennebec Journal said they couldn’t responsibly print a story with unsubstantiated allegations, and told David he would have to show them where the body was located.

After an additional interview, David agreed, and rode with the two journalists in their car to the site. They claim they didn’t get out of the car or see her body, only that they saw the general area of where she could be found and that was apparently enough to “substantiate” David’s allegations. When they returned to the office, they called the attorney general, James Tierney and said, “I think we have Paula Roberts.”

Her body is recovered

Paula was recovered around 3:15pm on Friday January 6th, the same day David told his story. She was only 21-years-old. Though the ice cream stand was 8 miles out of town, her body was left in the cold December night right in the heart of Augusta.

Her partially frozen body had been left 30 feet off of Grey Birch Drive, just before the entrance to MaineGeneral Rehab and Long-Term Care. She was just over the brow of a 10-foot embankment, hidden behind some rocks. It was practically in the backyard of the nursing home that still stands there today.

The bright and brave Paula was viciously and unfairly murdered—her light snuffed out while she fought to protect herself and the shop. She was found clothed, but her sweater had been pulled up and her pants and underwear cut open. She suffered from blunt force trauma of multiple skull fractures and 9 lacerations on her head.

Her nose, teeth, and jaw were all broken and her larynx was fractured with bruises on her throat from strangulation. Her eyes, face, neck, and shoulders were all badly bruised, with even heavier bruising on her hands and wrists. There were stab wounds post mortem on her thighs from cutting the clothing, and the ring finger on her left hand had had been severed. It’s likely the killer returned hours after her death to steal her ring.

David Willoughby is charged with murder

The next day, the Kennebec Journal ran a huge feature on Paula. They had the scoop of a lifetime—not only did they have the location of Paula’s body, they had a detailed account of someone very close to what had happened, and they had it exclusively. Every other outlet covering this story referenced the Kennebec Journal by name and would quote bits and pieces of their coverage in the days that followed. Readers devoured the details, but everyone wanted to know: who was this tipster? And although the journalists kept the tipster’s identity a secret, he was swiftly unmasked.

The police arrested 26-year-old David Willoughby the early morning of Saturday, January 7th, about a month after Paula’s disappearance, and David’s mother confirmed that he had gone to the press the previous day. Shortly following, the Kennebec Journal, themselves, confirmed it as well.

The police charged David with murder. A lieutenant with the state police said, “all the pieces of the investigation of the last five weeks led to his arrest,” suggesting that they already had their eyes on David. Though the huge searches for Paula were widely visible to the public, the details of the police investigation were not. It turned out that they already had begun investigating the Willoughby family, and David’s mother, Joyce Willoughby, admitted that police had temporarily impounded and examined her car.

Joyce said, “just what he feared would happen DID happen.”

David was worried that he would be blamed for her death; he had a criminal record and a shaky alibi for the night of Paula’s disappearance. And he was right.

David’s background

David was living about 15 minutes south of Augusta with his mom in sister cities Gardiner and Randolph (which straddle the Kennebec River). He had been living in, quote, ‘the south’, and had returned to Maine in September of ’83. He had a background working as a cook, but was unemployed since his return. He had been previously married and had two children, but they had gotten divorced, and it’s not clear where or with whom his children lived. He was a burly guy and admitted to heavy alcohol and drug use. David was later described by his defense attorney as “simple” as evidenced by his poor grade school academic records.

David’s pleads not guilty

David was scheduled to be arraigned in district court (to be later bound over to superior court), but when Maine’s attorney general discovered that a grand jury was available, he quickly arranged to have David’s case presented to them. After the prosecutor’s explained the case against David to the jury, they found probable cause and handed up an indictment.

Tension hung in the air in the Augusta courthouse on that Monday afternoon. Through the news accounts over the weekend, public ire had been focused onto one man. Authorities feared for his safety and beefed-up security at the public building. David was secreted into the courtroom through a rear entrance that was protected by armed guards. Reporters and spectators were searched with metal detectors before being permitted to climb the narrow staircase to hear the proceedings.

Once entering the crowded room, they saw David, sitting handcuffed, flanked by state police detectives and a defense attorney, stoic and looking straight ahead in an olive-drab shirt and blue jeans. Judge Donald Alexander read the charges against him. “How do you plead?”

David: “Not guilty, your honor.”

Judge Alexander ordered him held without bail and returned him to the Augusta Mental Health Institute, where he had been kept shortly after his arrest Saturday (for his own safety).

Before David left the courtroom he had a request for the judge: he wanted a new lawyer. He gave no explanation, but he apparently wasn’t happy with his appointed lawyer, Joseph O’Donnell, and his request was granted.

Joyce beseeched the media to listen to her son, quote, “David told me: he is not going to prison for something he did not do, and if it comes to it, he will take his own life… Circumstantial things point to David, but if anyone just listened to him, they would know he is sincere.” Joyce said that David was afraid for his life and had been threatened by the two men that were responsible for Paula’s death.

Autopsy performed, Paula’s cause of death

Immediately following the discovery of the body on Friday, Paula’s remains were recovered by the state police and transported to the office of the chief medical examiner in Augusta. The next day, on Saturday (the same day David was arrested), the doctor released preliminary results: she had multiple skull fractures and had been killed by blunt force trauma to her head. The medical examiner said it was impossible to establish a time of death—likely due to the cold weather conditions.

The attorney general said that more arrests were likely because officials believed that more than one person was involved.

Family and friends put Paula to rest

While David’s legal process was unfolding, the Roberts family was laying to rest their beloved Paula.

They acted quickly. The body was found Friday, an autopsy was conducted Saturday, and a closed-casket funeral was organized for Sunday. They held the funeral at a little white church in Oakland called United Baptist. The Belgrade-based family sat in the front row and several hundred friends, relatives, and schoolmates filled the pews behind them. A fierce snowstorm battered the church during the service. The wind howled as the mourners wept.

The reverend had a hopeful message, “our prayers have been that Paula would return home. Little did we know, in our limited wisdom, that she was already home.” Flowers covered the casket and her mother said, “may her memory be as fragrant as these flowers and as lasting as the evergreen.”

At its conclusion, all joined in singing “Amazing Grace” and paid their respects to the family before the throng of churchgoers made a caravan to Lewis Cemetery, two miles away (also in Belgrade), for her burial.

A gently sloping field led down to Paula’s final resting place. Headstone and monuments emerged from the freshly fallen blanket of white snow and solemn spectators traipsed down the rutted roads.

Wind fluttered the ribbons on flower baskets as snow piled up on the pastor’s shoulders during this final service. Paula’s body was interred in the heart of winter, an unusual choice for a Maine burial.

A chapter had closed for the family, but a new chapter had just begun.

Change of legal venue

The rage against David Willoughby and his unknown accomplice was palpable. So palpable that Judge Alexander granted the defense’s motion for a change of venue. This is a common legal maneuver designed to find the most impartial jury available to ensure a fair trial minimizing any predispositions from the jurors from local press coverage. The new venue for the trial Knox County Courthouse, a hundred miles away in quaint, coastal, Rockland, Maine.

Judge Alexander also authorized a small sum—$1,000—for David’s defense attorney to use to hire a private investigator, to conduct their own forensic analysis, interviews, and explore alternative suspect theories. David was unable to afford his own defense, so it was paid for by the state.

David’s stepbrother, Philip, arrested

In the same month that David was arrested, his younger stepbrother, Philip Willoughby, was charged and arrested as well.

David’s biological parents were Joyce and Robert Willoughby, and they had separated. His dad, Robert, had remarried, and his new wife’s name was Rita, who was Philip’s biological mother. Robert had legally adopted Philip, though, so in a legal guardian sense, Philip and David shared the same father.

Philip was just 21 years old and lived at an apartment house in Augusta at 30 North Street where he lived in a sparsely furnished room, sharing certain common areas with other tenants in the economical, white-sided building. Philip, like his older stepbrother, drank to excess, smoked pot and did drugs.

On Thursday, January 26th, Philip was indicted by grand jury, arrested at his attorney’s office in Augusta at 1:00PM, and held without bail. He was taken to Kennebec County Jail, the same jail where David was being held. They will both be held without bail for over a year awaiting their trial.

Philip, too, was arraigned in Augusta at Kennebec County Superior Court, where he pled not guilty.

David and Philip faced seven identical charges: 1 count of murder, another count of murder by depraved indifference, 3 counts of kidnapping, 1 count of armed robbery, and 1 count of aggravated assault for the attack on the customer, Dixon Smith.

University of Maine Farmington remembers Paula

3 months after the brothers were arrested, at one of the final events of the spring semester in 1984, University of Maine at Farmington held a convocation at their large auditorium. UMF’s president conducted the event and with the help of faculty, presented scholarships and awards to 95 students. One of the new awards given was in memory of her named the Paula Roberts Scholarship.

The 280 graduates opened their commencement exercises by planting a tree in honor of their late classmate.

Paula’s life would live on.

A preliminary court hearing

In May, the brothers were in the courtroom again with their attorney. He had filed a number of motions for Judge Alexander to consider.

One was about money. Philip was given $500 for a psychologist and $500 for a private investigator, and David was granted $500 for an investigator.

Philip also requested a “gluten diet”; he was having allergic reactions to the food served at Kennebec County Jail. The judge made no accommodation and suggested that they petition the county for help.

David’s trial - Opening

The two brothers simmered in jail as the summer passed with little reported progress. One major change did happen over the summer, though, and that was that the two men would be tried separately, not together, as initially intended by the prosecution.

And first up was David.

It was Monday, October 1st, 10 months after Paula had been violently taken from her quiet job and discarded, and David’s trial was beginning in Rockland.

Over the first two days, the defense attorneys and the prosecutor winnowed the large pool of potential jurors down to just 15 and its composition was predominately female: 11 women and four men. Only 12 of the 15 would make the final decision, but with the length of the trial it would be likely that the 3 alternates would become necessary.

On Day 3 (Wednesday, October 3rd), the trial began in earnest. David new attorneys, Robert Levine and James Strong, told the jury that the state had the wrong guy: the real killers were David’s stepbrother, Philip, and their mutual friend, Maurice Harrington. He said that David would be taking the stand himself to clear his name and explain to the jury exactly what had happened on the night of December 3rd, 1983.

Prosecutor Herbert Bunker told the jury that David was one of the killers. They had evidence that would place him at the murder scene and Paula in his mother’s car. Though they had no eyewitness to the murder, the circumstantial evidence was overwhelming.

David’s trial – Prosecution witnesses

First, Bunker sought to establish the timeline of the night. He called a witness from Belgrade who testified that he saw two men coming leaving the store at about 8:00PM. One of them was pushing a woman from the store. Nothing about it struck him as unusual – he was just passing by.

The prosecutor then called David’s mother, Joyce, to explain some key timeframes on the night of the murder. She said that her son drove her to work that Saturday afternoon and borrowed her car, a tan 1980 Plymouth Volare. She explained that he returned to pick her up after her shift at 11:15PM. David’s father, Robert, testified for the prosecution as well, his voice cracking with emotion, and said that his son had come by his apartment that afternoon and had left at 7:00PM, after an argument. That left a 4-hour window that David was unaccounted for: 7:00PM to 11:15PM, and Paula was taken right in the middle of the timeframe.

Next came the lottery tickets. The director of the Maine State Lottery himself came to testify in trial and explained that the 36 lottery tickets taken in the robbery were cashed at several Brunswick area stores. Those tickets were all recovered, and an FBI fingerprint witness explained that latent prints taken from the tickets were compared to David’s, and they were an exact match. The FBI witness further explained that there was an Old Milwaukee beer carton found on the floor of the shop, and that it, too, had David’s fingerprints on it.

Bunker then turned his attention to the tan, 2-door, faux muscle-car. Investigators found blood in the car and took samples. An FBI lab technician testified that there are 8 blood types found in the US and when he compared the blood samples in the car to Paula’s blood, he found that they were of the same type. Hair samples were taken from the car as well. A different FBI lab technician testified that he examined those hairs and compared them to Paula’s, and though he could not guarantee that the hairs were Paula’s, “there was a very high degree of probability.”

Next Bunker called a friend of David’s, Peter Cole, to testify against him. He said that David admitted to him that he was the “wheel man” in the robbery and murder. He said David told him that “he knew something about the ice cream stand robbery.” He said that “He was involved, and that the missing girl was dead and was killed with a tire iron.” Peter asked David if he was the wheel man, and he responded, “something like that.” On cross examination, Peter admitted that on the day that David had made this admission, he was drinking heavily. He said that he had drank “two or three six-packs” of beer, and was “pretty lit”. He had suffered several blackouts during the day, casting doubt on his recollection. David’s attorney later told the jury, “you cannot rely on a drunk with a Swiss cheese memory.”

Maurice Harrington took the stand, the defense’s prime suspect. His friends called him Mo. He, too, lived at 30 North St in Augusta, the same apartment house where Philip lived. First, he denied that he was involved with the robbery/murder; he explained that he wasn’t at Summer Haven Ice Cream Shop that night; he was home at the apartment house. Then he cast suspicion on David, telling the jury of a road trip that he went on with David and his stepbrother after the robbery where he noticed that David had quite a “wad of cash.” David paid for the hotel room and drinks. He asked him where he got all the money and he laughed, saying, quote, “he got fuel assistance”. He remembered while the search for Paula was ongoing, he asked David what had happened to the girl, and he said David replied, “she’s probably in the woods somewhere” and laughed. However, on cross examination, Maurice admitted that he used to wear a jacket regularly that had an American flag sewn on its back, and that after the robbery, he had thrown it out because it was, quote, “worn out.” Defense attorney Strong was clearly intimating to the jury that the real reason Mo had chucked the jacket was because it might have evidence on it of the crime.

David’s trial – Defense witnesses

Following Mo’s testimony, the prosecutor was stunned when the defense produced three witnesses that placed Mo at the scene. Barbara Cranston, a customer at the ice cream shop just before the robbery, testified that when she left the shop, she saw two men sitting in a tan car. She said she got a good look at one of them. She recalled, quote, “he was laughing at me” when her truck stalled as she was leaving the parking lot herself, and she told the jury that man was Mo Harrington.

The second witness was Barbara Francis, and she said that Mo was one of two men sitting outside the restaurant, just before the robbery. The state later cast some doubt on Barbara’s recollection, when a detective said on the stand that Barbara was unable to make a composite from the face she saw at the scene and could only describe the man she saw as “tall and dark”.

The third witness testified that she, too, was there just before 8:00PM on the night of the robbery, and that she was waiting in the car while her husband went into the shop to by a pack of cigarettes. They were parked next to another car, backed in, running, with the headlights on, and the man in that car “glared at her” while she waited. It upset her so much that she changed seats and locked the car door.

“I remember the eyes—they were sad-looking with big, bushy eyebrows.”

David’s attorney showed her six witness photos, and she picked out Mo Harrington from the lineup. The prosecutor objected, saying that Mo’s image stood out: all of the photos were in color except his, which was in black and white.

David’s trial – David takes the stand

Finally, the moment had come that everyone was waiting for: David took the stand in his own defense.

He spoke quietly, in an almost apologetic tone.

He started out by explaining the timeline of the night. He confirmed his parents’ testimony, echoing the same key times: 7:00PM he left his father’s place and he returned to his mom’s work around 11:00PM.

He acknowledged that the empty packaging of beer that was found at the scene was likely from the 12-pack that he had purchased that afternoon at a grocery store in Randolph, near he and his mom’s place.

He said that when he left his dad’s place, he took his younger stepbrother, Philip, with him, and the two of them went back to Philip’s apartment house in Augusta. They met up with Mo and they were all drinking together. They ran out of beer between 7:00 and 7:30PM, so David let Philip borrow his mother’s car to go on a beer run. He pitched in $5 and watched Philip and Mo leave the apartment house to head, he believed, to the neighborhood 7-11. He remembered that Mo was wearing a jacket with a flag and a NSKK motorcycle club emblem. (To give you a sense of the character of the club, NSKK was named after the Nazi motorcycle troopers from Hitler’s reign). He said Philip was wearing brown pants and white sneakers, and it took them 90 minutes to run a 5-minute errand. Philip came back by himself – Mo wasn’t with him. When he came back in the apartment house, David described Philip as real drunk, hyper, and scared. He said that he had just robbed a store, killed a girl, and left her. He saw blood spots on his sneakers. He kept saying that he “couldn’t leave no witnesses… couldn’t leave no witnesses.” He went to pick up his mom later that night and brought her home. At first, he hadn’t believed Philip, but when he caught the tail end of the 11:00PM news, he changed his mind. The next morning, he checked the family car and found blood in the back seat. He cleaned it up and kept his mouth shut.

That same day, Sunday, December 4th, the day after the crime, David said he discovered the body.

"I had to know. I went to the (Williams) Nursing Home and looked around the big rock. When I saw it, I froze. I couldn’t move. I got sick. I ran back to the car and went to Philip's place. I told him I saw the body. He said if I ratted I would be killed by Mo (Harrington).’’

He said Philip gave him an envelope of lottery tickets taken from Summer Haven, to keep his mouth shut. On Monday, he went to Brunswick to cash the lotto tickets.

"I was paranoid. I was threatened by Philip. I didn't know what to do," he said. "I was depressed. I didn't know what to do. I stayed inside all the time.”

He later went with Mo and Philip to North Conway, New Hampshire, a ski resort town a few hours away, where Philip admitted the crime to him again at the motel where they were staying. "She shouldn't have given me guff and I wouldn’t have killed her," Philip said.

Finally, David Willoughby admitted to the jury that he could understand how they might think he was involved—especially with his criminal history: he had been convicted of three burglaries, one forgery, and one theft. But he said he feared that his record would send him back to jail for a crime he didn’t commit. He acknowledged that he had profited from the robbery by spending the money and cashing the lottery tickets, and that he had failed to notify authorities of the crime and the location of the body, but he was innocent.

David’s testimony was bolstered by two doctors that had met with David in the week leading up to his meeting with the Kennebec Journal. He had checked himself into the Kennebec Valley Mental Health Clinic because he felt despair about his situation and his mom thought he was apt to hurt himself. He stayed for 6 nights and seven days between there and the Augusta Mental Health Institute. During his in-patient treatment, he met with two psychiatrists and explained his hopeless predicament. They both said that he was “extremely depressed” and had a history of suicidal gestures. They confirmed that he had relayed the same story about letting Philip and Mo borrow his mom’s car and that he was afraid that if he came forward with the truth that he would be killed by either Philip, Mo or someone else in Mo’s motorcycle gang.

David’s trial – alibi witness

To corroborate David’s claim, another resident of the apartment house at 30 North Street testified to establish an alibi for him. Kathryn Blumberg said that she had seen David at the apartment house a little after 8:00PM on the night of the robbery. She recognized him because of his previous visits. She was walking downstairs to the bathroom to wash her hair and she saw David walking up the stairs to the third floor. She remembered the time because “T.J. Hooker” had just started on television. She remembered the date because it was the night that she met her fiancé, George, who was an inmate, and the defense confirmed with jail records that the weekend of the 3rd was the only weekend that he was out of prison in December. She said that she knew David was arrested for the crime, but never contacted police with the information. She said it was some time before she made the connection, and when she did, she called David’s mom. She said that she wasn’t sure if it was that same weekend or not, but after the jail records were produced, she was convinced. The prosecutor, dumbfounded and flummoxed, said to the jury, “I don’t think Kathryn is lying, but I think her memory is inaccurate.”

To corroborate Kathryn’s alibi, Gene Lesoucy, another resident of 30 North, recalled that he had walked with Kathryn that evening to a neighbor’s house shortly after 8:00PM, where she met her future fiancé. Gene added that Mo Harrington was very violent and loud when he and Philip would drink together. He, too, said that Mo’s appearance changed following the night of the murder: he no longer wore the Nazi biker club jacket, nor did he wear his hair in a pony tail. He also remembered Mo with a wad of $50 and $100 bills that he estimated to be between $1,500 and $1,800.

David’s trial – Rebuttal witnesses

The prosecution called a rebuttal witness: a detective from the Maine State Police. He said that he checked Mo’s fingerprints against all latent prints discovered at the scene, and none of them were a match. But on cross examination, the detective admitted that the comparison hadn’t been made until the day prior, showcasing the tunnel-vision of the investigation on David.

David’s trial – closing arguments

In closing arguments, the defense summarized for the jury the arguments for David’s innocence. There were three witnesses that placed Mo at the scene, and one witness that put David at the apartment house. Plus David took the stand in his own defense and explained the reasons his fingerprints were found on the beer carton and the lottery tickets. And the defense pointed out that they didn’t have to prove David’s innocence, it was the prosecution’s job to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. And Mo Harrington was that reasonable doubt.

The prosecution pointed to David’s long history of similar crimes: five previous convictions for different types of stealing, not to mention a pending charge that had been postponed until after the murder trial. His fingerprints were found at the scene unlike Mo Harrington’s. He even admitted to cleaning up the blood from the car. Why had it taken him a month to come forward with information about the body and the crime? And what about his vacation with Philip and Mo to New Hampshire just days after the murder? And how did he end up with the money and proceeds from the crime that he didn’t commit?

David’s trial – jury verdict

After just two hours of deliberation, the 9-day trial had come to its climax. The jury had reached a unanimous verdict.

They filed back into the courtroom, and the jury foreman, Paula Higgins of Camden, stood, ready to break the news that would either set David free or send him to prison for the rest of his life.

Court Clerk Susan Simmons read each of the charges: murder, robbery, kidnapping, aggravated assault, and for each charge, Paula answered in a clear, strong voice: Not guilty, not guilty, not guilty, not guilty. David was free.

David slumped in his chair and uttered a sigh of relief…

David’s trial – David’s reaction

A cordon of sheriff’s deputies whisked him out a back door and held him for his own protection. The case had ignited passions in the area, and officials feared that an acquittal might inspire some vigilante justice.

When he arrived at the Maine State Prison, reporters were waiting to hear his reaction.

He first expressed his sympathy to the Roberts family, saying that he was very sorry and that Paula’s death was a senseless one. David had spent nearly a year in jail, and he said that his cell had been set fire and his life was made a lot harder through the process, but that he was pleased with the verdict and glad it was finally over. He said,

“My nerves are shot. I have a lot of regrets. I lost my fiancé. I lost my father when he took sides with Phil... It’s too bad. I want to thank the people who stood by me including my mother, Joyce, and the mother of my ex-fiancé.”

He said that he didn’t hate anyone, and he understood the process.

“I didn’t believe in the system before. Now I’m a believer. If I had it to do again, I would have reported it to the police a lot earlier. Now I'd go right to the police. But because of my police record I didn't know how to handle it. I handled it poorly, but I'm free now."

He wanted to try and pick up his life again and try someplace new. He said, “Maine will be like the past to me”, and left the reporters with these parting words: “The truth shall set you free.”

Part 2

But if David was innocent, then who was responsible for the murder? Was it Mo and Philip, like he said? Would he testify against his brother? Would Paula’s murderers finally be brought to justice?

Click here for Part 2 covering the Philip Willoughby trial.

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