Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Shattered Souls: Roy Andrews

Episode Date: November 7, 2021

Join veteran forensic investigator Karen Smith on the Shattered Souls podcast! Roy Andrews spent his law enforcement career helping others but after his murder he needed the help of an adrenaline-fueled team of detectives to find the killer. From a callous confession caught on wiretap, to thoughts from homicide detective Eileen Simpson, who was listening as it happened, this episode takes listeners directly inside the investigation as a killer is brought to justice.Subscribe to the Shattered Souls podcast and catch up on all of Season 1 available now:Apple PodcastiHeartSpotifyMusic by Sam Johnson Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Motherfucking he picked me up. It was over. I got it in me to do what I gotta do. Show me your hands! Don't you move! Don't you move! Hands up! Put your hands up! This is Shattered Souls. I'm your host, Karen Smith.

This podcast contains graphic language and is not suitable for children. You want to hear the whole detail? Can you handle it? Robert Peterson brutally killed his stepfather, Roy Andrews, a retired police officer. When we left off of Episode 3, I promised you that I would play the recording

from the covert vehicle during a sting operation using a drug dealer named Jimmy Jackson, who was cooperating with police. Robert couldn't wait to brag about it to the first person he thought he could trust. And police were counting on this meeting with Jackson to get him to admit details of that crime. And it didn't take long. The homicide detectives taped a wire to Jimmy Jackson's chest and put the battery pack in his pocket. They set him off to the Waffle House in the covert vehicle to park and wait for Robert Peterson to pull up.

The following is the actual recording between Jimmy Jackson and Robert Peterson that night. You'll hear Jimmy Jackson announce that Robert Peterson just pulled up in an expedition, and then he goes into his role as a police informant. Please listen with care. expedition i killed two birds with one stone that's why i say be the 14th i mean i mean uh... i mean

i mean whatever you did whatever you did that's's your business. But I'm saying, no matter. They all over me, man. They all over me. But you know what? Like I told you. But I'm saying, I'm shocked, but how did you do it? That is the voice of a terrified man. Put yourself in the shoes of Jimmy Jackson for a moment. You're wired.

You're sitting in a covert vehicle with someone you know is a stone-cold killer. There's a microphone on your chest. And the onus is on you to get this man to admit details to the police who are listening live. Can you blame him for being scared? The way it was, man.

You need me to get rid of it before you? No, it's gone. All that shit's gone. Everything's clean. being scared? but I got my ass covered, okay? The best time I do is five. Did you hear that? He said the best time I do is five, meaning he thought he was only going to get five years in prison if he was found guilty of this crime. The hubris is staggering. And he kept talking. I told you I could do it. I didn't want to do it.

But I'm saying, what time? Was it morning, late night? No, it was broad motherfucking daylight, baby. Every motherfucking... Hey, I told you I had to do what I had to do. I had to do what I had to do, man. You don't understand that, okay? I got it in me to do what I got to do. It was 9.45 in the fucking morning, okay? I mean, you know what I'm saying saying I didn't hear nobody said they heard they heard our Any shots or anything? Yeah, yeah, yeah, they're gonna talk anything. So, you know

No, yeah, what yeah He was retired Dang, you cross the fucking line. I don't give a fuck who you are. That's the way it is I don't care. fuck who you are, that's the way it is. I don't care, I told you that night, I don't give a fuck if I do time. You understand? I don't give a fuck if I do time. So what you did, you just waited for him on?

Oh fuck no, I waved him down, motherfucking he picked me up, it was over. Bop! On Emerson? Right motherfucking in, not on Emerson, goddamn cemetery baby. I took the bitch to the cemetery. I was gonna say goddamn we ain't on Emerson yet. That's why I told you. I said, I said. My telephone was gone. I said, I said. One of my, my telephone was gone. They confiscated my whole goddamn room at Masters. They, they confiscated my whole, they pegged me right off the back but they

ain't got on me they ain't got nothing on me i'm still out but the main thing is that no one knows about like your new girlfriend your mother your parents i mean your family you can't trust nobody man i know what you're saying but you know that should be your thing i don't know i don't know a thing you know what i don't know like don't know a thing you know i don't know like i told the man him face to face with me detective valentine homicide he's sitting right here i'm sitting right here you know i'm crying i'm upset yeah you put the food game on it i said man this is the wrong time to ask me any questions i'm out there i think you're putting up you put a gunpowder test on me they pulled the a whole, they took my clothes. They took every stitch of clothes I had.

Underwear, socks, everything. They took everything. I signed consents to my room. I signed consents to my truck. I signed consents to my room at my mom's house. They searched every fucking thing. They took everything they wanted. I said, let me tell you.

It was done and over. What I had was gone, done, deal. You know what I'm saying? The powder test passed. I had nothing on me. I'm clean. I fucked up a little bit there, but I do have that covered. Well, how your phone got fucked up?

The motherfuckers took my goddamn phone. Damn, man. They took my... It was in my fucking motel room. My phone was... Now, I gotta... Now, I probably... That's why I wanted to let you know.

Now, anybody that call you, they got the chance. They phone on, man. Nobody want to call me. That's why I told you let you know. Now, anybody that call you, they got the chance. They phone on, man. That's why I told you to watch out for that number. Oh, because you didn't have that number. Because I told you my phone was gone. I didn't want to go into detail. You know, right then I couldn't go into detail. You see what I'm saying?

I couldn't say nothing. I told you if my number comes up, fuck it. I'm not there. I got a new cell phone. I'm fixing to drop this motherfucker and get another one. For sure. I mean, one after another. For sure.

I can't trust nothing, nobody. Hell no. As far as an alibi, you know, da-da-da. We got cameras at Masters Inn. I played it all to the T. You know what I'm saying? Everything's covered under cameras where I'm supposed to be. At the time, da-da-da-da-da, da-da. Everything's covered.

I mean, I had to do it quick, but I had to do it, and that's the way it was. Yeah, there were cameras at Masters Inn, the same ones that showed him leaving the morning of Roy Andrews' murder, wearing the black ball cap left at the scene, and returning a couple of hours later without it. He thought that he had covered all the forensics. He thought he had covered all of his bases. He couldn't have been more wrong. And this motherfucker, see, he wanted me, see, he wanted me to come down here this afternoon and talk to him,

Detective Valentine. But you already talked to him, didn't you? Yeah, but he wants to close, you know, he wants to come up and just close your shit. So I went drinking. Well, as long as you're under influence, they can't ask you no questions. You know what I'm saying? They can't ask you no questions if you've been drinking. You know what I'm saying?

Okay. They can't do that. All right. Anything you say is inadmissible in court if you've been drinking. You see what I'm saying? So as long as I stay fucking a little buzz going, they can't hold nothing against me. Yeah, I got to change this phone tomorrow. I would, honestly.

Anybody and anybody that's talking to you on a friendship basis should change their phone, too. That's what I've got everybody doing. That's why I told you. And I couldn't explain that to you the other day because I had to state I don't know who's listening. And I done shook them motherfuckers. I mean, I know who's following me.

I don't know them all, but I know how to shake a tail, okay? Yeah. And when I know I got to, I mean, the night you see me at gate, man, I done went all the way to motherfucking ball with them back. Damn, you riding your ass off, man. You don't want the bitches back there. I said, damn, you riding your ass off, God damn. And now see what I'm driving?

I'm looking for the red truck or the green hunting. No, they took the red truck from me. They got that bitch down there in ballistics. I wasn't in that. I wasn't in that. I wasn't in that. I signed it over. Take the motherfucker. Go ahead on. You want me to do a 007 VIP car or something or a truck or something?

Oh, that bitch is on fire and gone. Set on fire. Set that motherfucker on fire the same motherfucking day. Gone. Crushed and gone. Set on fire. Woo! Set that motherfucker on fire the same motherfucking day. Woo! Gone. Crushed and gone. In Baldwin? Crushed and gone. Crushed and gone. That bitch is fucking scrap steel right now. I drove the bitch up there. They picked it up, stuck it in the crusher, and away it went. I got the whole ass ass man. I motherfucking drove out there. You want to hear the whole details? Can you handle it?

I got a weak stomach. I'll throw up on you, but just, you want to brief me on what you did? I motherfucking was... But how you flagged him down? I was on the side of Emerson. He left fucking the place. Like you was broke down? Like you flag him down? I was on the side of Emerson. He left fucking the plate. Like you was broke down?

Like I was broke down. I was walking. The goddamn camera was on the plate. I'm saying, when you hit him with the brass, you had to pop him with the piece with the pistol. Yeah. He wouldn't die with the brass knuckle. Man, you ain't motherfucking lying.

Hell no, man. Fuck that, man. God damn. And the man that I was working for says I was there from 9 o'clock to 11 o'clock. And from 11 o'clock to 12 o'clock, I eat lunch. And from 12 o'clock to 1 o'clock, I sit at my mama's house when they came and informed us he got killed. God damn. And I'm busted up, man.

They load me up and take me downtown right off the fucking bat. Because you crying? No, because I'm the number one suspect. I didn't know you were even staying. How are you going to be the number one suspect? Because I'm the motherfucker that went to record. Okay? I got the badass record in the family.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah. All right. Hey, the girl that got killed on Phillips Highway? Yeah. I got accused for that. I went through all that fucking involuntary manslaughter charges and all that and beat it. Damn.

They said I threw her out in front of a car. So what, you know? Hey, maybe it happened like that, maybe it didn't. Shit's got to happen sometimes the way shit's got to happen. If she still was alive... I thought she probably was just drinking and just wandered out there, God damn. Yeah, we didn't think that.

But then one woman, an old lady hit her, someone with shit laid her down. Yeah, well an old lady did hit her, but she tripped and fell in the fucking highway, didn't she? Like I said, I got to go to court, I'm gonna have to hire a lawyer, I'm gonna have to beat the case,

but I'm pretty sure, hey, they have no evidence, they have no evidence. You gotta get you a good one, man. Oh, I got to find me one right now. I'm hunting one right now before it even happens. I want to be ready when they come and get me. They ain't fucking with me right now. They go fuck with me when the funeral's over. That's when they go slam me. That's when they go slam me. They might not even bother. They don't question. They might not even bother you. Come on, man. They go slam some fucking body. They don't question anybody. They ain't bothering them. They go... Come on, man.

They go slam some fucking body. This is... They dropped half flag, got the fucking police from the war building, put the black ribbon over the door, got it all over the fucking news. There's nine fucking homicide detectives working on this motherfucker. They're damn determined to get to who it is. Okay? Uh, damn.

Okay? See what I'm saying? We picked out the casket today. Made arrangements. I got to go tomorrow and get this plot. Damn. Okay, see what I'm saying? We picked out the casket today. Made arrangements. I gotta go tomorrow and get his plot. I mean, it's hard when it hits home like this, you know what I'm saying? Yeah.

The detectives, parked in the shadows, had heard enough at this point. It was time to take Robert Peterson into custody. They had primed Jimmy Jackson and told him to go with the flow. They didn't want to tip off Robert Peterson that Jimmy had been wired. So they took them both down at gunpoint. Don't move! Show me your hands! Show me your hands! Show me your hands! Don't you move! Show me your hands! Show me your hands! Show me your hands!

Don't you move! Don't you move! Hands up! Put your hands up! You got them? I got them. Either one of you fellas move. Do you understand me?

Do you understand? Yeah. You got this car? One female in this car. Yeah. Hold on one second. Don't move, don't move. Anybody moving?

Hands on the ground, straight down. Show him your hands, now! They couldn't let Robert know that he was an informant, even though it was fairly obvious at that point that something had been wired, whether it was Jimmy or whether it was the truck or whether they'd both been set up. And when Jimmy Jackson was finally handcuffed and taken away, he was really upset. He was in the back of a patrol car, and he was talking with one of the homicide detectives. And although you could hear the fear in his voice when he was talking to Robert Peterson in the car,

you can hear the sadness and the regret and the disbelief in his voice when it was all over. Everything 77? Everything's okay. Yeah, he talked about that, man. Hey. If he didn't talk about that, man. Man, see. He didn't talk about that, man. Did he? Yeah. How he did it, when he-

Tell me what? He said he flagged him down. He said he flagged him down. Where at? At the grave. Walking the way he knew he was gonna come home. The way he knew he was gonna come. He told him his truck was broke down at the graveyard.

It's another body there too. The girl that got killed on Fila Highway that time. He said it on that too. He said he put the body on top of the body that he already put there. That guy's a cold killer, man. What did he tell you? Just tell me what he said.

He said, if you strong enough for it, so you know what, I want to get him in there. You know, don't tell me all that, you tell me so much. But then once he got the cranking, he said he flagged him down, because he knew the way he was going to come for to drop him off. Because I asked him, I said, how you said how you we did it on Emerson Oh I'm glad a motherfucker down any game where a truck was how do I broke down don't buy this cemetery say say hit him in the eye with the brass knuckles didn't say shot him because he said he tried to fight him back.

So he knocked his eye out of his head. Were they in the cemetery at that time? Yeah, he said they were in the cemetery. He said, when y'all came to arrest him, he said, when y'all came to arrest him, when y'all came to the house, y'all got fingerprints still. But he said, oh, y'all got fingerprints there but he said oh y'all got his fingerprints there but he got a cover story because because his nose was bleeding the day before whatever whatever he had to help him out with his nose so evidently he killed him in his vehicle he killed him in his vehicle. He killed him in the guy's vehicle. All because of the money? Had to be.

I can't believe this shit, man. This man actually sat there and bragged about that, man. Cause I thought he did it with a pistol, but he did it with brass knuckles, then a pistol. Cause he said, he said he wouldn't die. That's cool, man. That's cold. Homicide detective Eileen Simpson was in a covert car that night, parked around the corner, listening to the conversation.

He hopped in the car and started talking. Part of the conversation when he has with jimmy where he talks about shooting roy and then hitting him in his head and making that noise it sounds like when you stomp a melon that noise i will never be able to get that out of my head and then knowing my immediate mind went to seeing roy laying there on the ground on the side of the road in his work clothes with blood streaming down the gutter all I could think is what is wrong with this guy to take this man's life that's done nothing to him this was a good human being and you just treated him like trash and you're just so nonchalant about it that you're just telling this random drug dealer

how you just killed somebody. On that wiretap tape, you also heard Robert Peterson mention the death of his ex-girlfriend. Well, what you didn't hear was part of it that was redacted when I received the file. You heard him say that he lured Roy Andrews to the cemetery. You also heard him say that his ex-girlfriend, quote-unquote, tripped and fell in the highway. Well, what you didn't hear was Robert Peterson in that confession tape also say, I stacked him double. What he meant was, when he lured Roy to the cemetery, he lured him to the place where his ex-girlfriend had been buried over a year prior, and he killed Roy Andrews on top of his ex-girlfriend's grave.

In other words, he stacked them double. She did not trip and fall on the roadway, at least in my opinion. However, the homicide detectives and the state attorney, upon hearing that, reopened her case and they looked for witnesses. They looked for any further evidence that would show that Robert Peterson may have just admitted to a second murder. Unfortunately, when they looked at the case file, there was nothing in there that would allow them to reopen the case for manslaughter or homicide against Robert Peterson. So back to the Roy Andrews murder case. Early that next morning, my phone rang.

It was the lead detective. And he said, I need you to come down to the office now. I said, what's going on? He goes, just come to my office. So I did. And I walked through the doors and he was standing by his desk and I said, what's going on? What's the matter? And he told me that they had Robert Peterson in custody. And I smiled and he said, not so quick here. And he handed me a set of headphones. I said, what's this? And he goes, just sit at my desk and listen. So I put the headphones on and I sat down at his desk and he pushed play on the recording device. And I sat there and listened to the same thing that just

a few hours earlier they had heard live. After a while, he came back, and I was just sitting there with a glazed look on my face, and he said, what'd you think? What did I think? Um, dude, I don't know what to think. I'm dumbfounded, I'm disgusted, it makes me sick. And he said, yeah, we weren't really expecting all of that. And he said, do, we weren't really expecting all of that. And he said, do the forensics match up with what he's saying? I said, yeah, the forensics did match. We had Roy Andrews' truck and the bloodstains inside told the story that everything that happened to Roy happened either inside or just outside that truck. We had the blood spatter on Roy Andrews' arms that showed a defensive position when he was fending off the brass

knuckle blows by Robert Peterson. We had the projectile in the glove box and the fact that it had traveled through Roy before ending up there. The supposed nosebleed that Roy Andrews had the night before that we knew was a complete crock. We had the ball cap. We had all kinds of forensics and everything that we had, every theory that we had proposed, was founded by Robert Peterson's own words. After Robert Peterson was arrested and thrown in jail, Bond was denied, and the case languished for a few years in the pretrial process as depositions were taken and defense attorneys were assigned and reassigned to his case. And finally, after four years, the trial took place in August of 2009. The prosecution presented all

of the physical evidence, and the jury watched the video surveillance footage from the hotel hallway that showed Robert Peterson exiting about six in the morning wearing the black ball cap found at the crime scene and then returning shortly after the murder without it. Timelines were scrutinized. The confession tape from the wiretap was played to the jury, and they sat stunned at what they were hearing. The medical examiner testified and showed photographs of the horrific injuries to Roy Andrews' head and face, and how Roy would have survived for several minutes in tremendous amounts of pain before the fatal shot was fired through his brainstem. And on the third day of direct testimony, I was called to the stand and I couldn't wait

to give my testimony. The first thing the prosecutor did was he brought out Roy's shirt that we had tacked to the cardboard the day of his murder. And I came out of the witness box and I pointed to the gunshot residue on his shirt collar and some of the bloodstains on his shirt. And the prosecution moved forward to the bloodstains on his forearms. And I pointed out to how that would be a defensive posture on the part of Roy to fend off the blows from the brass knuckles. And I watched the jurors and I watched their faces and they were scowling. They were pissed.

I think they were just as pissed off as we were, and after I got through all the physical evidence, I'm not going to go through everything, but suffice it to say that the jurors were sitting in their chairs, and most of them were just staring Robert Peterson down. They were mad and I think that they were antsy to get into the deliberation room. I still had the defense to contend with and it wasn't going to be pleasant. The defense attorney postured at the lectern and smiled at me. And that was not a gesture lost on me. I wasn't quite sure what he had up his sleeve, but I was prepared and unafraid. And the first thing that the defense attorney did was brought up the evidence collected at the cemetery that day. He skipped over the ball cap,

the things that were inculpatory against his client. And he skipped over to the extraneous garbage that I had collected that was a little bit removed from the scene. And he focused on that cigarette butt that was pointed out to me. And at that point, I went, God damn it. I had a funny feeling this was going to be a problem. Good afternoon, detective. Did you collect a cigarette butt at the cemetery? Yes. And had that cigarette been smoked? And I said, well, it was just the butt, so I would assume so.

I knew it. Sometimes collecting extraneous evidence can introduce evidence that is not of the crime at hand, but extraneous to the scene that can muddy the waters. That cigarette butt had nothing to do with Roy Andrews' murder. And now the defense attorney was going to try to spin that and take out all of the evidence that we had collected and all the work that we had done and spin it to his advantage. And I should have pushed back harder at the scene and I knew it. But now it was too late, and I just had to answer honestly, regardless of the consequences. And the defense attorney asked, what can agencies discover from a cigarette butt? And I said, well, you can get DNA from the saliva on the end, and I don't think it would be out of the question to get a partial fingerprint from the paper. So the purpose of collecting it for putting it into a bag is to send it somewhere

to get it tested. Is that right? Well, sure. And they would look for DNA from saliva, fingerprints, things like that. Right. And he continued. Now, this occurred in August of 2005, right? Right. That's a summer month, right? Yes. It's hot out? Yes. And when it's hot out, people perspire, right? Yes. And if a person is perspiring, is it more or less likely that you could get a print from them? He asked, and then he turned his back to me. When lawyers turn their back on you, that is a gesture that is meant to elicit some contempt, some indignation from the witness. Please, I'd been around the block a few times, and you can't let things like that get to you.

But here's the deal. You have to answer honestly. And he asked me if people perspire more in the summertime. Well, yeah, people do. But then what he asked was if people perspire more, is it more or less likely that you would get a print from them? Well, this was a leading question and it was nonsense. And honestly, it deserved a clap back. Unfortunately for me, professionalism takes precedence over being witty in court. And I had to answer proficiently rather than just telling the defense attorney to shove the cigarette butt up his ass, which is exactly what I wanted to do. So my answer was, all I can tell you is that perspiration is one of the mediums that leaves fingerprints behind, but I can't quantify how much or how little would leave a smear versus a print. I have no idea.

And the defense attorney continued with a few more questions about photographs and the truck, and then he was finished. No further questions, Your Honor. Imagine for a moment that you are serving on this jury. At this point, you've heard about Roy's injuries, and you've seen the photographs. You've heard from the homicide detectives who explained their investigation and how they got Robert Peterson to admit to the crime. You've heard about the black ball cap found at the scene that Robert Peterson admitted was his. You've seen the photographs of Roy's truck and the bloodstains all over the seat and the windows and the glove box. You've held the envelope containing the bullet

that traveled through Roy's head, killing him. After all of that, the defense attorney tries to toss a wrench into the machine by introducing a single cigarette butt, pushing the idea that there may have been some anonymous person at the cemetery that day that just carelessly tossed it on the ground by a garbage can and that we happened to collect to be on the side of caution. If you were serving on that jury, would that have made a difference to you? I hope not. The impaneled jury didn't give it any credence. It took them less than two hours to find Robert Peterson guilty of first-degree murder.

And that was a bittersweet verdict. Roy Andrews was gone, but citizens could rest knowing that the killer was going to stay behind bars forever. Robert Peterson was remanded to Florida's death row, and he subsequently appealed his sentence. Florida passed a new law that dictates that in order for a death sentence to be carried out, the original jury from the trial must have come to a unanimous decision to impose that death sentence. In this case, the decision was 7 to 5. So Robert Peterson's original sentence was overturned in July of 2017 to life in prison with no possibility of parole. To Roy Andrews, thank you for your service.

The others will keep the watch. This is the new real Opening and underscore music by Kevin MacLeod at incompetech.com Closing music by Sam Johnson at samjohnsonlive.com All rights reserved by Angel Heart Productions This is an iHeart Podcast.