A Glouster man who was accused of murdering his father in October appeared in the Athens County Common Pleas Court on Wednesday and changed his plea to guilty to a nine-count indictment.
Paul J. Roberts, 41, was sentenced to life in prison for the aggravated murder of his 63-year-old father Paul E. Roberts.
“Paul J. Roberts murdered his father, Paul E. Roberts, and put his body in a well under the porch of 68 Locust Street in Glouster,” Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn confirmed in a news release from his office.
According the news release, the younger Roberts will have his first eligibility for a hearing in front of the parole board after 20 years, but “the state will oppose any attempt at parole.”
He was placed on a bond of $950,000 at his Nov. 4 arraignment after originally pleading not guilty to the charges. He was then incarcerated in the Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail until Jan. 27, when he was transported to the Noble Correctional Institution in Caldwell, Ohio, according to the jail’s booking documents.
The elder Roberts was believed by law enforcement officials to have been murdered aro
und Oct. 4. His body was found almost two weeks later, according to a previous
Law enforcement officials from Blackburn’s office, the Glouster Police Department, the Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Identification, the Ohio University Police Department and the Athens Police Department found the elder Roberts’ body when they arrived at the residence to investigate a case of vandalism, in which they suspected Paul J. Roberts as the vandal.
An initial coroner report deemed blunt force trauma to be the cause of death, according to a previous
Post
article.
The younger Roberts confessed to WBNS-TV, Channel 10 in Columbus, in October that he had murdered his father. He said an argument between the two turned physical when his father charged at him with a knife. At that point, the younger Roberts said he grabbed a heavy pipe and “apparently swung it way too hard.”
However, Blackburn said in an Oct. 28 press conference that at the time, law enforcement officials had reason to believe that there were holes in that story.
Blackburn added in the release that “(Paul J.) Roberts also stole his father’s 2004 Jeep Liberty, John Deere riding lawnmower and credit card.”
Paul J. Roberts’ wife, Rhonda Degarmore, 37, and her brother, Robert Degarmore, 52, also pleaded guilty to charges relating to the case. The two were accused of counts of receiving stolen property, in reference to the deceased’s credit card.
Rhonda was also charged with receiving stolen property. She was sentenced to four years and 11 months in prison while Robert received an 18 month sentence. They are incarcerated in the Ohio Reformatory for Women and the Correctional Reception Center in Harrisburg, Ohio, respectively.
