Law&Crime Sidebar - 'Truly Disturbing:' Man Accused Of Setting Dad's Girlfriend on Fire - And Knocking Her Teeth Out

Episode Date: May 15, 2023

Ohio man Robbi Robinson is accused of attacking his father’s girlfriend, who he calls his stepmother, setting her on fire, and knocking her teeth out. Body camera footage shows the suspect denying the whole thing. The Law&Crime Network’s Jesse Weber speaks with Ohio attorney and retired Judge Fanon Rucker — along with legendary homicide detective Fil Water — to make sense of what happened and what’s next.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Save 10% on your entire POM Pepper Spray order by using code LAWCRIME10 at http://bit.ly/3IGNFxvSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieObjectionsThey Walk Among AmericaDevil In The DormThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that will

keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Come to me now. There's a fire going on my room. Okay. I don't know what happened. It just went off, bro. I try to, I try to stop. A man allegedly sets his father's girlfriend on fire. and then claims he doesn't know what happened. Ohio attorney and retired judge Phelan Rucker and legendary homicide detective Phil Waters tried to make sense of what exactly happened here. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Long Crime. I'm Jesse Weber.

I have definitely covered a lot of stories at Long Crime. But if there's one thing I can tell you throughout all of them, it is that you have to stay safe. And that's why I want to talk to you right now about palm pepper spray. This is something that can really help. This is a discrete but powerful personal defense tool. Palm pepper spray shoots up to 12 feet using the strongest legal formula of pepper spray. It is super safe. It is easy to use. It is ready to fire. All you got to do is just point and spray. The best part, we got a promo code for you. You can save 10% by using code law crime 10 at pompepper spray.com. And always remember, call 911 if you see somebody in trouble. now to another truly disturbing story. This one out of Fairfield Township, Ohio.

23-year-old Robbie Devon Robinson Jr. is accused of beating and setting his father's 50-year-old girlfriend on fire. That's right. And this was all captured on intense body cam footage that I want to get into right now. So let me bring on Ohio attorney and retired Judge Fanon Rucker and legendary homicide detective Phil Waters. Gentlemen, it's great to have you both here. I'm sorry this is the case that we're talking about, but I think it's really important to dig right in just from the body cam footage itself. Now, I want to warn everybody, this is difficult.

This is not easy to hear. A lot of this is redacted, but what this is, is the body cam footage of when an officer responds to a report of a house fire and a woman lying in the backyard, the officer finds the woman identified as Brenda Scott. As I said, it's redacted, but it has been reported that she had extensive burns on her body, and you don't need me to tell you just how awful this is to hear.

Take a listen. Six or four, I've got the female in the back. Severe burns control. Give me an off channel. No, do. Law 5. Law 5. Yes, 4.

Back here. on the ground severely burned. Honey, stay with me. I'm Officer Stebbins, just stay with me, okay? I got the Maddox are coming to get you right now. I'm not to breathe. Huh? I got to breathe. Okay. My inhalater's in the health. I can't breathe and then knock my teak out.

Okay. Who's he, honey? Now, it is pretty amazing that she's able to speak and explain what's going on and how the officer is trying to keep her calm and try to get help. Phil, let me start with you. What's your reaction to hearing that? Because my goodness, I mean, that is just horrific, horrific sight. Well, the officer that is arriving at that scene, he recognizes very quickly what is going on in terms of her injuries. And he's very quick to get on there and say, you know, get us the appropriate personnel here.

But in listening to her, I mean, good grief. if you can almost feel the pain just by the tone of her voice and what she is saying. So you've got the burns, which, of course, have started this whole ordeal for her. But then on top of that, she apparently has an inhaler that she uses. And so she can't breathe. And the anxiety level is such a degree that she's not only got the burn thing going on, but she's also very concerned about the fact she can't breathe. So, yeah, it's a pretty graphic portrayal of somebody that's been attacked in this manner.

And you listen to the officer who's trying to be that sense of calm to her when not only was she burned, but she jumped out of the second story window of the house after she was attacked. So just picture that. And he's trying to provide some sense of calm to her. I'm going to mention a little bit more about this. But I want to go to you, Judge, because to have these statements from a victim and she's saying he, she's saying he. So in a future criminal trial, if this goes to trial, those statements from her, the victim herself, can be used against him, right? That is absolutely correct.

I mean, it called presence sense impression. They're also called excited utterances. And, you know, one thing that is of concern, because this actually happened in, I'd say in my backyard. So it's been on the news pretty heavily down here since it happened last week. If I recall correctly, I believe several of her teeth were also knocked out. she's in critical condition, at least the last report that she was, and if she ends up not surviving this, and obviously the charges will change, but also that statement will also could potentially come in as a dying declaration because it has some indicia of reliability about who it was

that committed this offense, in addition to whatever the officers already have by way of capturing the alleged offender here. Okay, and that's important from a legal point of view when we talk about hearsay, like out-of-court statements that are used to prove the truth of the matter asserted. So her identifying who did this to him under those specific circumstances can be used against Mr. Robinson. But, you know, I hope it doesn't come a dying declaration because it has been reported that she was taken to the hospital with second-degree burns.

She underwent surgery reporting indicating that she was placed in a coma as a Friday. And as you said, Judge, she's still in critical condition. And we are all wishing her a safe and speedy recovery because this is absolutely horrific. But now I want to go into the second part of this body camp footage. And this is when they apprehend Robinson, who basically approaches the officer and behaves, like he has no idea what's going on. Take a look. Come to me now.

Okay. I don't know what happened. He just went off, bro. I try to, I try to stop. So I find out what's going on. Sorry. What happens? Is there anybody else in the house?

Who? My stepmother. Your stepmother jumped out the back. What's your name? Robbie. Robbie? Okay. I'm six before I got the suspect.

In custody. I don't know what happened. It just went off. What happened? Him reacting to the idea she jumped out of the second store window. Oh, oh, she did? What's your? reaction to his reaction, Phil?

Well, it's with a, I guess, a morbid sense of humor that I watch him and his reaction to this thing. It's like, just what you said, Jesse, oh, she did? Like, big shocker to him. He thought he had done whatever he needed to do, I guess, to facilitate her being incapacitated. And he's, of course, what draws them to him. Of course, he's walking up to him, but he's dressed. It's 80 plus degree weather, and he's dressed in a heavy jacket.

Yeah, I wanted to ask you about that. That is strange that he's wearing that heavy jacket. I don't know if that somehow, if he did this, if that somehow was a protective gear from setting her on fire. I was trying to make sense of why he would be wearing that. Well, it's certainly possible, and there's no telling what was under the jacket. So those are the things we don't know. So when the officers get him secured and they do their search, do their pat-down of him to find out if he's got any type of weapons on him, there may be something revealed in that search.

And, of course, they're going to take the jacket. I would imagine they're depending on what kind of a inflammable liquid that he used. There may be an odor on that jacket and on the clothing and so forth and so on. So they're going to take the clothing as evidence, I would imagine. But it is interesting that he walks up and his reaction to it. And my sense is just the overall picture of this thing. I worked a case many years ago where a young man beat his father to death with a baseball bat in the presence of his stepmother and great, great mental health issues.

So my take is on this, much the same. similar set of circumstances that whatever led him to do this to her, to Ms. Scott, that there's, he's got some, he's got some serious mental health issues going on. So let's be clear about that, a few things. Number one, I would say the majority of the crimes that we cover, something's wrong with the defendant. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that they're, you know, insane and they won't be found guilty because I do think it's interesting, Judge, when you listen to him,

there is a sense there you know he claims he doesn't know what happened and unless he has some sort of condition assuming he did this unless he has some sort of condition where he doesn't really recall what happened or he blacked out I don't sense a really strong defense now we don't know what the motive is

behind this yet I'm sure that will be explored but you have the video him right being in the vicinity you have what Phil said maybe there's a material on his actual clothes you have the victim seemingly pointing him out as the attacker. And then a neighbor called 911 and said that it was Robinson that threw

water with gasoline. So it seems to me they have a pretty strong case. He's been charged with aggravated arson, a first degree felony, and felonious assault a second degree felony. Those charges specifically walk us through how serious those are and how easy it would be for prosecutors to prove that, given what we see right now. Sure. So what we see right now, I mean, there's certainly, I would say, a very substantial amount of evidence that points to this individual that was arrested as the person who did this. Of course, as you said, we don't know enough about motive. We don't know enough about other evidence that they found. But the seriousness of these charges, I mean, aggravated arson where you start a fire and try to harm somebody in the process, that's the first re felony.

It's the highest level of degree of offense in Ohio. And then the felonious assault, I believe under these circumstances will be a felony, too, which is the second highest degree. I mean, he's facing, you know, 25, 30 years on these charges if those are the charges that stick. What also may change when this goes to the grand jury, because what's going to happen after the initial charge and allegations are sent to the grand jury, which is a group of citizens that are going to listen to the evidence presented by the prosecutor to decide if and what charges go forward, they may raise those charges. to attempted murder. I was going to ask you that. Why wasn't he initially charged with attempted murder?

Is it because they can't right now establish that he intended to kill her? That's possible. And again, there's going to, you know, the police officers, the first responders on the scene, you know, they brave souls that they are and flexible souls that they are to deal with and see what they did see. They haven't begun really a hardcore investigation. At least we don't know the results of that deep investigation. yet. And it's very possible that once those, that additional evidence and statements and prior

history or whatever else comes out through their interviews and through their investigation, is very likely that additional charges will be filed, which may include attempted murder. And if God forbid she dies, this becomes murder? That's right. And because of the attendant circumstances, and depending on what other information comes out as far as motive or even prior history or relationship between the parties. I mean, it could be aggravated murder. You never know, which, of course, would make him eligible in Ohio for the death penalty. But again, this is very speculative to our field.

It's serious enough as it is without adding information that we don't yet know. I'm glad you said the seriousness of this attack. That's where I want to end this with, Phil, because that level of attack burning someone, Fairfield Township Police Sergeant Brandon McCrosky said this entire case was chilling. It's quoted of him saying it's one that makes your hands hair stand up on the back of your neck. I don't care how long you've been doing it. Now, according to the police, this case remains under investigation. The police department's going to be working in cooperation with the Ohio Department of Commerce,

fire and explosion investigations bureau, the Fairfield Township Fire Department, and the Butler County Arson Task Force. But I'll just leave this with you, Phil. this level of attack it feels like one of the worst it's he said it himself it's one of the worst that we've seen um to have somebody be attacked in that way in your experience i don't think it gets much worse than that well that is a brutal brutal way to hurt to harm someone no doubt and i can tell you of course i have a lot of you know as my homicide detective part of me has got questions questions i'm i agree completely with the judge you know there's so much we don't

don't know at this point. The attempted murder ag assault, you know, in Texas, the elements are much the same. It is much an easier road to go to get a conviction in aggravated assault than it is attempted murder. So, and the penalties are much the same. So I think they're going that route in terms of the charging at this point. But my question is about this whole episode is, did the, did the arson aspect of this thing happen before the assault, the physical assault or did the physical assault happen before the arson so my my thinking is is that was he in there he lived with his father in this in this house and was he in there trying to do some sort of damage to the house and he was mad and putting around the gasoline because he was going to light the house

up and she got in the middle of it and so his response to her was to punch her in the mouth knock some teeth out, throw gasoline on her, light her up, and then leave thinking that he accomplished what he set out to do. And then that's why you have this surprised about how she climbed out the window. So, you know, it was the cart in front of the horse or was the horse in front of the car kind of a thing? And it's just in the scope of the investigation. But yeah, this is a this is a horrible, horrible way to attack someone as to light them on fire, no down. I'm sure we will get more details in the days to come and in the weeks to come. But as I said before, we were just wishing for her to have a speedy recovery because this is such a brutal

attack and, you know, one of the worst ones we've covered here on Sidebar. Gentlemen, thank you so much, Fanon Rucker, Phil Waters. Appreciate you taking the time. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And that's all we have for you here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you guys. at your podcast. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time.