County prosecutors have no homicides trials scheduled for May
Fayette County prosecutors will not try any homicide trials in May, according to District Attorney Nancy D. Vernon. The chief prosecutor said that the two homicides nearest to trial involve the retrial of Franklin Joseph Weimer and the trial of Roberta Gillin.
The latter is a case from 1992 in which Gillin and her husband were charged in the death of their 25-year-old adopted daughter, Helen Gillin. Roberta Gillin faces charges of criminal homicide, abuse of a corpse and criminal conspiracy for allegedly participating in her daughter’s death.
Her husband, James Gillin, has already been convicted of first-degree murder and his appeal to the state Superior Court was denied. He stomped Helen Gillin to death in the couple’s backyard fire pit. The attack, allege police, was at the prompting his wife.
After the she died, police allege that Roberta Gillin helped James Gillin cover up the crime when the two burned Helen Gillin’s body and had their other children clean the pit and dump the ashes.
Roberta Gillin initially agreed to testify against her husband in exchange for a lesser sentence, but a judge refused to accept the deal based on testimony at James Gillin’s trial.
She successfully entered a guilty plea after that before another judge, but withdrew it at the time of sentencing.
Weimer’s case was returned to Fayette County after his third-degree murder conviction was overturned by the state Superior Court in 2000.
He was charged with beating 2-year-old Zachary Johnson with a shower brush in 1998.
Although prosecutors sought a first-degree conviction and the death penalty, he was convicted of third-degree murder during his trial. Weimer was also convicted of endangering the welfare of a child.
When the conviction was overturned on the basis of trial errors, Weimer was granted a new trial but can only be convicted of third-degree murder.
Weimer allegedly beat Johnson while he was babysitting the toddler on Jan. 24, 1998. He was sentenced to 22 1/2 to 45 years in prison.
Both Weimer and Gillin are free on bond pending trial.