Just after midnight on January 5, 2010, Deputy Josie Fox of the Millard County Sheriff's Office and her partner were watching from a distance a suspicious car and a pickup truck parked along the road near the tiny central Utah town of Delta. There had recently been a series of burglaries which had drawn the officers to the area. When the two suspicious vehicles departed the scene in opposite directions Deputy Fox followed the 1995 Cadillac DeVille. The officers knew the identity of the man in the other vehicle, the pickup truck. He was a known drug user named Ryan Greathouse who also happened to be Deputy Fox's brother.
After Deputy Fox called in the license number of the Cadillac, registered to 38-year-old Roberto Miramontes Roman, the police dispatcher forwarded instructions to have the vehicle pulled over. A few minutes later Deputy Fox radioed that she had pulled over Roman and was exiting the patrol car.
Deputy Fox did not transmit further messages and was not responding to calls from the dispatcher. Concerned that the deputy's encounter with the driver of the Cadillac had resulted in her injury or death, Millard County Sergeant Rhett Kimball proceeded to the site of the stop to investigate. When the deputy rolled up to the scene he saw Fox's patrol car lights flashing and the deputy lying on the road in a pool of blood. The 37-year-old police officer had been killed by two bullets fired at close range into her chest. (The bullets must have pierced her bullet-proof vest.) Roberto Roman and his 1995 Cadillac were gone.
After fleeing the scene en route to Salt Lake City Roberto Roman got stuck in a snowbank near Nephi, Utah. He called his friend, 35-year-old Ruben Chavez-Reyes, for help. Chavez-Reyes pulled the Cadillac out of the snowbank and from there the two men continued on to Salt Lake City. Along the way Roman tossed the murder weapon, an AK-47 assault rifle, out of the car. When the two men arrived at their destination, Roberto Roman switched license plates with Chavez-Reyes. (He did not, however, clean traces of Deputy Fox's blood off his Cadillac.) Later that morning Mr. Roman told his friend that he had "broke a cop," meaning that he had killed a police officer.
Deputy Fox's partner questioned Ryan Greathouse at his home. The murdered deputy's brother said he had purchased drugs from the man in the Cadillac, a dealer he knew as "Rob." Greathouse gave the deputy Rob's phone number which identified this man as Roberto Roman. The deputy then informed Greathouse that Roman had shot and killed his sister with an AK-47 assault rifle.
The next day Millard County deputies arrested Roberto Roman whom they found hiding in a shed in Beaver, Utah. Once in custody Mr. Roman provided the officers with a full confession. The suspect told his interrogators that when the patrol officer pulled him over outside of Delta he was angry because he was being careful not to speed or cross over the center line. Furious that the cop was pulling him over simply because he was "Mexican" he shot her twice with his assault rifle. He did not know he had murdered the sister of the man who had just purchased meth from him.
The Millard County prosecutor charged Roberto Roman with aggravated first-degree murder as well as with lesser weapons and evidence tampering offenses. If convicted of murdering a police officer, under Utah law, Roberto Roman faced the death penalty.
In April 2010, more than four months after the shooting death of his sister, Ryan Greathouse was found dead from a meth overdose in the bedroom of a Las Vegas apartment.
In 2011 Judge Donald Eyre presided over a two-day hearing to determine if Robert Roman would qualify for the death penalty. The judge, after listening to the testimony of psychologists, ruled that the defendant was "mentally retarded" and as such, ineligible under Utah law for execution. This ruling disappointed and mystified a lot of people. (Most cop killers are either high on drugs and/or stupid. Since intoxication and mental dullness are not criminal defenses, people who are not bright should not be spared execution. Moreover, courthouse psychologists think all criminals are stupid and should therefore be treated differently from their more intelligent counterparts.)
The Roberto Roman murder trial got underway on August 13, 2012 in the Fourth District Court in Spanish Fork, Utah. After the prosecution rested its case in four days the defendant took the stand on his own behalf. Rather than admitting his guilt as he had in his police confession, Roberto Roman offered the jurors a completely different story, one that was both self-serving and implausible.
On the night of Deputy Fox's death the defendant and the officer's brother Ryan Greathouse were riding around in Roman's Cadillac smoking meth. When Deputy Fox pulled the car over outside Delta, Ryan, who was crouched down in the vehicle, grabbed the AK-47 and shot Fox in the chest, unaware he had just murdered his sister. After the shooting, the two men went their separate ways. The beauty of this story involved the fact Ryan Greathouse was not in position to contest the defendant's version of the murder.
Prosecutor Pat Finlinson, in his closing summation, reminded the jurors of the physical evidence that supported the prosecution's theory of the case. The victim's bullet wounds indicated that the AK-47 had been fired at an angle consistent with being discharged by the driver of the Cadillac. Moreover, the defendant's fingerprints, not Ryan Greathouse's, were on the assault rifle.
On August 20, 2012, a week after the Roberto Roman trial began, the jury, after deliberating eight hours, found the defendant not guilty of the aggravated first-degree murder of Deputy Josie Fox. The jurors, in defending their unpopular verdict said that without Roman's confession they didn't have enough evidence to find him guilty.
Roberto Roman became the first Utah defendant charged with the murder of a police officer to be acquitted since 1973. The jury did find him guilty of the lesser offenses pertaining to the assault rifle and the evidence tampering. On October 24, 2012 the judge sentenced Roman to the ten year maximum sentence for those crimes.
The not guilty verdict in the Roberto Roman murder trial shocked and angered the law enforcement community, friends and relatives of the slain police officer and a majority of citizens familiar with the case. Had Ryan Greathouse not died between the time of the shooting and Roman's trial this case may have had a different ending. For a stupid person, Roberto Roman had done a good job of beating a strong circumstantial case.
In May 2013, David Barlow, the United States Attorney for the District of Utah, announced that a federal grand jury had returned an 11-count indictment against Roberto Roman for, among other crimes, the murder of Deputy Josie Fox. U.S. Attorney Barlow said, "The fact that Mr Roman had already been tried before a state court had no influence or affect on the federal murder charge [arising out of the same conduct]." In other words, according to this federal prosecutor, the Fifth Amendment protection against double jeopardy didn't apply in this case.
The new federal charges against Roman, in addition to murder, included, among other offenses, drug trafficking and illegally firing a gun in the death of a police officer. If convicted as charged, Roman faced a maximum sentence of life in prison.
In May 2014, Roman's attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the federal indictments on grounds their client should not have to stand trial for a federal murder charge related to the same crime. Attorney Jeremy Delicino said, "In layman's terms, the United States seeks a second chance to rectify what it believes the jury got wrong the first time. In blunt colloquial terms, the United States seeks a do-over."
In response to the defense motion to dismiss the indictments, lawyers for the prosecution asserted that the U.S. Supreme Court has held that federal and state governments can prosecute a person for separate crimes based upon the same conduct.
On September 30, 2014, U.S. District Court Judge David Nuffen ruled that prosecuting Roberto Roman for federal offenses related to the police officer's murder did not constitute double jeopardy. The federal case could therefore go forward.
On February 6, 2017, a jury sitting in a Salt Lake City courtroom found Roberto Roman guilty of eight federal charges that included the murder of Deputy Fox. U.S. District Court Judge David Nuffen, in April 2017, sentenced Roman to life in prison plus 80 years. "Criminals must know that killing a law enforcer in the line of duty means that they will never go free," he said.
After Deputy Fox called in the license number of the Cadillac, registered to 38-year-old Roberto Miramontes Roman, the police dispatcher forwarded instructions to have the vehicle pulled over. A few minutes later Deputy Fox radioed that she had pulled over Roman and was exiting the patrol car.
Deputy Fox did not transmit further messages and was not responding to calls from the dispatcher. Concerned that the deputy's encounter with the driver of the Cadillac had resulted in her injury or death, Millard County Sergeant Rhett Kimball proceeded to the site of the stop to investigate. When the deputy rolled up to the scene he saw Fox's patrol car lights flashing and the deputy lying on the road in a pool of blood. The 37-year-old police officer had been killed by two bullets fired at close range into her chest. (The bullets must have pierced her bullet-proof vest.) Roberto Roman and his 1995 Cadillac were gone.
After fleeing the scene en route to Salt Lake City Roberto Roman got stuck in a snowbank near Nephi, Utah. He called his friend, 35-year-old Ruben Chavez-Reyes, for help. Chavez-Reyes pulled the Cadillac out of the snowbank and from there the two men continued on to Salt Lake City. Along the way Roman tossed the murder weapon, an AK-47 assault rifle, out of the car. When the two men arrived at their destination, Roberto Roman switched license plates with Chavez-Reyes. (He did not, however, clean traces of Deputy Fox's blood off his Cadillac.) Later that morning Mr. Roman told his friend that he had "broke a cop," meaning that he had killed a police officer.
Deputy Fox's partner questioned Ryan Greathouse at his home. The murdered deputy's brother said he had purchased drugs from the man in the Cadillac, a dealer he knew as "Rob." Greathouse gave the deputy Rob's phone number which identified this man as Roberto Roman. The deputy then informed Greathouse that Roman had shot and killed his sister with an AK-47 assault rifle.
The next day Millard County deputies arrested Roberto Roman whom they found hiding in a shed in Beaver, Utah. Once in custody Mr. Roman provided the officers with a full confession. The suspect told his interrogators that when the patrol officer pulled him over outside of Delta he was angry because he was being careful not to speed or cross over the center line. Furious that the cop was pulling him over simply because he was "Mexican" he shot her twice with his assault rifle. He did not know he had murdered the sister of the man who had just purchased meth from him.
The Millard County prosecutor charged Roberto Roman with aggravated first-degree murder as well as with lesser weapons and evidence tampering offenses. If convicted of murdering a police officer, under Utah law, Roberto Roman faced the death penalty.
In April 2010, more than four months after the shooting death of his sister, Ryan Greathouse was found dead from a meth overdose in the bedroom of a Las Vegas apartment.
In 2011 Judge Donald Eyre presided over a two-day hearing to determine if Robert Roman would qualify for the death penalty. The judge, after listening to the testimony of psychologists, ruled that the defendant was "mentally retarded" and as such, ineligible under Utah law for execution. This ruling disappointed and mystified a lot of people. (Most cop killers are either high on drugs and/or stupid. Since intoxication and mental dullness are not criminal defenses, people who are not bright should not be spared execution. Moreover, courthouse psychologists think all criminals are stupid and should therefore be treated differently from their more intelligent counterparts.)
The Roberto Roman murder trial got underway on August 13, 2012 in the Fourth District Court in Spanish Fork, Utah. After the prosecution rested its case in four days the defendant took the stand on his own behalf. Rather than admitting his guilt as he had in his police confession, Roberto Roman offered the jurors a completely different story, one that was both self-serving and implausible.
On the night of Deputy Fox's death the defendant and the officer's brother Ryan Greathouse were riding around in Roman's Cadillac smoking meth. When Deputy Fox pulled the car over outside Delta, Ryan, who was crouched down in the vehicle, grabbed the AK-47 and shot Fox in the chest, unaware he had just murdered his sister. After the shooting, the two men went their separate ways. The beauty of this story involved the fact Ryan Greathouse was not in position to contest the defendant's version of the murder.
Prosecutor Pat Finlinson, in his closing summation, reminded the jurors of the physical evidence that supported the prosecution's theory of the case. The victim's bullet wounds indicated that the AK-47 had been fired at an angle consistent with being discharged by the driver of the Cadillac. Moreover, the defendant's fingerprints, not Ryan Greathouse's, were on the assault rifle.
On August 20, 2012, a week after the Roberto Roman trial began, the jury, after deliberating eight hours, found the defendant not guilty of the aggravated first-degree murder of Deputy Josie Fox. The jurors, in defending their unpopular verdict said that without Roman's confession they didn't have enough evidence to find him guilty.
Roberto Roman became the first Utah defendant charged with the murder of a police officer to be acquitted since 1973. The jury did find him guilty of the lesser offenses pertaining to the assault rifle and the evidence tampering. On October 24, 2012 the judge sentenced Roman to the ten year maximum sentence for those crimes.
The not guilty verdict in the Roberto Roman murder trial shocked and angered the law enforcement community, friends and relatives of the slain police officer and a majority of citizens familiar with the case. Had Ryan Greathouse not died between the time of the shooting and Roman's trial this case may have had a different ending. For a stupid person, Roberto Roman had done a good job of beating a strong circumstantial case.
In May 2013, David Barlow, the United States Attorney for the District of Utah, announced that a federal grand jury had returned an 11-count indictment against Roberto Roman for, among other crimes, the murder of Deputy Josie Fox. U.S. Attorney Barlow said, "The fact that Mr Roman had already been tried before a state court had no influence or affect on the federal murder charge [arising out of the same conduct]." In other words, according to this federal prosecutor, the Fifth Amendment protection against double jeopardy didn't apply in this case.
The new federal charges against Roman, in addition to murder, included, among other offenses, drug trafficking and illegally firing a gun in the death of a police officer. If convicted as charged, Roman faced a maximum sentence of life in prison.
In May 2014, Roman's attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the federal indictments on grounds their client should not have to stand trial for a federal murder charge related to the same crime. Attorney Jeremy Delicino said, "In layman's terms, the United States seeks a second chance to rectify what it believes the jury got wrong the first time. In blunt colloquial terms, the United States seeks a do-over."
In response to the defense motion to dismiss the indictments, lawyers for the prosecution asserted that the U.S. Supreme Court has held that federal and state governments can prosecute a person for separate crimes based upon the same conduct.
On September 30, 2014, U.S. District Court Judge David Nuffen ruled that prosecuting Roberto Roman for federal offenses related to the police officer's murder did not constitute double jeopardy. The federal case could therefore go forward.
On February 6, 2017, a jury sitting in a Salt Lake City courtroom found Roberto Roman guilty of eight federal charges that included the murder of Deputy Fox. U.S. District Court Judge David Nuffen, in April 2017, sentenced Roman to life in prison plus 80 years. "Criminals must know that killing a law enforcer in the line of duty means that they will never go free," he said.
Hmmm no surprise that the feds will violate the constitution to punish a guy for killing a corrupt cop that got what she deserved.
ReplyDeleteYou didn't know her.
Delete"a corrupt cop that got what she deserved"???
Delete-----------------------
You're have some proof of this, or do you just like to leave troll-droppings and smell up the joint?
Oh.
DeleteA drive-by.