Opinion ID: 2077593
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: State's Trial Evidence

Text: The State's evidence at trial established that the three men who robbed the J & R Grocery Store had come from and returned to James Anderson's residence in Newport where he lived with his wife, Theresa Anderson. Roth, Jr. went to the Andersons' residence, on New Year's Eve with his mother, Patricia Roth, and his father, Roth, Sr. Several other social guests came and went to the Andersons' home throughout the course of the evening. In a taped statement to the police, Theresa Anderson said that, on New Year's Eve, she saw her husband depart together with Roth, Sr. and Roth, Jr. and return together with them that evening. When they returned, her husband was staggering and bleeding profusely from his head and hand. Roth, Sr. told Theresa Anderson to have her daughter Brittany removed from the house. Theresa Anderson said that Roth, Jr. was flipping out. Roth, Jr. said `The mother f...er wouldn't drop.' He said he shot him like four or five times and he finally had to kick him over. Theresa Anderson stated that when the three men returned to her house, her husband, James Anderson, did not have a gun; Roth, Sr. had a revolver; and Roth, Jr. had a semiautomatic handgun. Theresa Anderson helped care for her husband's wounds and also cleaned blood off of Roth, Jr.'s gun and money stolen in the robbery. Roth, Jr. hid his gun under the Andersons' couch that evening. He retrieved the gun on the following day. Theresa Anderson's tape-recorded account to the police was corroborated by other guests at the Andersons' residence, including Patricia Roth's initial statement to police. [3] Paul Ciccaglione was present at the Andersons' residence on New Year's Eve waiting for his girlfriend, Lisa Laskowski, to pick him up. They left briefly to visit Ciccaglione's cousin and returned. According to Ciccaglione, when they left, the three Roths, including Roth, Jr., were at the Andersons' residence. Ciccaglione and Laskowski returned to the Andersons' house a short time later. When they returned, Roth, Sr., Roth, Jr. and James Anderson were absent. Following a knock on the door, Ciccaglione was asked to take Brittany away from the house. [4] As he left to take Brittany to his cousin's house, Ciccaglione saw one of the Roths standing by a car. Ciccaglione testified that when he returned to the Andersons' residence after leaving Brittany at his cousin's house, he saw clothes, ski masks and blood everywhere. Roth, Jr. was acting nervous, taking off his clothes and throwing things in a bag. He noticed that Roth, Jr. had a head injury and that James Anderson had an injury to his hand. Theresa Anderson told Ciccaglione that there had been a robbery, James Anderson had been shot and Roth, Jr. may have killed a man. On the day after the robbery of the J & R Grocery Store, Holly Schmitt received a telephone call from her long time friends, the Andersons. At Theresa Anderson's request, Schmitt proceeded immediately to the Andersons' residence. They told her there had been a robbery and that someone had been shot. Schmitt could not recall the names of James Anderson's accomplices, only that they were a father and son. The older man had driven the car and the younger man had gone inside. When Schmitt saw the mess at the Andersons' residence, she cleaned up some of the bloody materials and threw them in a bag. She also picked up and discarded some of the other items. Schmitt then took James and Theresa Anderson to Massachusetts. On January 1, 1999, the police received an anonymous tip that James Anderson had been involved in the J & R Grocery Store robbery, during which he had been injured, and that he had fled to Massachusetts. The police obtained and executed a search warrant on the Andersons' residence. They found numerous items related to the robberies, including two empty Wilmington Trust deposit bags, nineteen coffee cans some of which contained tokens from Bob's Adult Bookstore, a pair of Motorola two-way radios, boxes containing .38 caliber ammunition, an empty box of Remington shotgun shells, ski masks, camouflage pants and a bloody washcloth. On January 3, 1999, James Anderson was apprehended in East Hampton, Massachusetts while he sat drinking in a bar with his wife, Theresa. He had a .38 caliber revolver in his possession. Delaware State Police dispatched two detectives, Detectives Dan Bramble and Vincent Fiscella, to East Hampton to interview James Anderson. He gave them a statement confessing to the three robberies in question. He implicated Roth, Sr. and Roth, Jr. as his accomplices. He stated that Roth, Jr. was the person who shot Antunez. Theresa Anderson was also questioned and made a statement, which corroborated her husband's statement in many respects. After James Anderson implicated Roth, Sr. and Roth, Jr. in the robberies, the police executed search warrants on several motel rooms and a storage locker located in Stanton, Delaware. In the storage locker, which was leased in the name of Roth, Jr. and his girlfriend, the police discovered a shotgun similar to the one observed at the J & R Grocery Store, a box of .38 caliber ammunition and a gun cleaning kit. An Isuzu Rodeo automobile owned by Roth, Sr. was also searched. DNA analysis revealed that the blood of both James Anderson and the victim, Antunez, was inside the vehicle. DNA analysis also identified blood samples recovered from the grocery store with both the victim, Antunez, and James Anderson. At the J & R Grocery Store, police recovered five .38 caliber shell casings, all of which came from the same semiautomatic handgun. The police did not recover the semiautomatic handgun but confirmed that the shell casings did not come from James Anderson's .38 caliber handgun. The police also recovered five bullets or bullet fragments during the course of the investigation. Two of the fragments were recovered from the crime scene and three others were removed from the victim, Antunez. Pursuant to a plea bargain with the State, James Anderson testified at Roth, Jr.'s trial. According to James Anderson, he and three accomplices planned to rob the J & R Grocery Store. Moises Ordorica, the fourth codefendant, taught them certain Spanish phrases for use in the robbery, provided information about the store and received a share of the robbery proceeds. James Anderson's testimony provided a detailed account of the armed robbery and murder at the J & R Grocery Store. According to James Anderson, Roth, Sr. and Roth, Jr. left his residence together. Roth, Sr. remained in the getaway car and drove back to the residence afterward. James Anderson, armed with a .38 caliber handgun, and Roth, Jr., armed with a shotgun and a semiautomatic handgun, put on masks and entered the grocery store. James Anderson focused on Antunez while Roth, Jr. focused on Rodriguez and went to the back of the store searching for a safe. When he and Antunez struggled, James Anderson's gun discharged twice, hitting Anderson. James Anderson saw Antunez collapse after Roth, Jr. shot him several times. James Anderson also implicated Roth, Sr. and Roth, Jr. in the other robberies. The jury convicted Roth, Jr. of the charges associated with the armed robbery, the murder at the J & R Grocery Store and the robbery of Bob's Adult Bookstore. The jury, however, did not convict Roth, Jr. of the charges relating to the robbery of the Newport Family Restaurant.