Judge to rule on defense mistrial request
A Fayette County judge will decide this morning if a statement inadvertently not provided to Roberta Gillin’s defense attorney warrants a mistrial in her criminal homicide case. In the statement, read into evidence by state police trooper Daniel J. Venick, Gillin, 53, of Masontown, said that her husband, James Gillin, killed their adopted, mentally retarded daughter, Helen, after she was caught sexually abusing a child in their Bear Rocks home.
Gillin gave the statement to Sgt. Charles Depp in August 1999, around the time she and her husband were arrested and charged in 25-year-old Helen Gillin’s death. Police alleged that her father killed Helen Gillin at her mother’s urging, after Roberta Gillin discovered the two were having an affair.
However, after Venick read the statement to jurors, Gillin’s attorney, Paul Gettleman, asked to approach the bench. After a brief discussion with Gettleman, District Attorney Nancy D. Vernon and deputy prosecutor Joseph M. George Jr., Judge Gerald R. Solomon dismissed jurors for the day.
Outside the jury’s presence, Gettleman told Solomon that he had never seen the statement and had conferred with Gillin, who said she never told police that Helen Gillin was killed because she was sexually abusing a child.
He asked for an immediate mistrial because the statement was not part of discovery material, which includes both incriminating and clearing statements made by a defendant. Prosecutors must provide both to defense counsel in criminal cases.
Gettleman said he first thought the statement Venick started reading was one Gillin gave to police in 1999, when they first started investigating Helen Gillin’s disappearance. As Venick continued with the two-page statement, Gettleman said, it became apparent to him that he had never seen it.
At Solomon’s request, George checked the filed copy of discovery material in the clerk of courts office and indicated that the statement was not included. He noted, however, that a prior page indicates that Gillin was interviewed.
Gettleman said he was not aware of that notation.
“I would have thought if they took (a statement) and it was not in the file, it was not exculpatory,” he told Solomon, noting that prosecutors are responsible for including such material.
George indicated that “hundreds and hundreds” of papers were filed as discovery in Gillin’s homicide trial, and the inclusion of the statement was simply overlooked.
While Gettleman said he felt a mistrial was the only solution for the oversight, Vernon disagreed.
“Attorney Gettleman sat through, knowing the statement was not given in 1995 … without objecting, then asked the court for a mistrial,” Vernon said.
She suggested that prosecutors be precluded from referring to the statement, saying that Depp would appear in court this morning so that Gettleman could question him about the statement. Vernon also said it would be appropriate for Solomon to instruct jurors to disregard the contents of the statement.
“With all due respect to the court, there’s nothing that you can say to take that out of their mind. …I don’t believe the court could fashion a remedy that could assure my client not only the right to a fair trial, but also to an adequate defense,” said Gettleman, noting that he had not prepared for the new evidence.
Venick is the last remaining prosecution witness before Gettleman begins his defense.
The statement, which George provided to Gettleman after court closed for the day, indicates that Gillin first denied having anything to do with her daughter’s death. After she was confronted about statements from Mary Jo Overly – the couple’s natural daughter, who testified she witnessed the killing – Gillin reportedly admitted knowledge of the killing.
In the statement, Gillin said she went to check on Overly’s babies in the bathtub and found Helen Gillin sexually abusing one of the children.
Gillin told police that she then yelled for her husband, who took Helen downstairs. Gillin told police that by the time she went outside, Helen Gillin was already dead in the couple’s back yard. Gillin reportedly said that her husband told her he hit Helen Gillin and she fell and hit her head on a rock.
Police said Gillin admitted that she and her husband decided to burn the woman’s body in a fire pit because neither wanted to go to jail, and that James Gillin burned the corpse.
The statement indicates that when James Gillin wanted to get rid of the ashes, Roberta Gillin said, “No, that’s her grave. Leave her alone. That is her resting place. Don’t do this.”
Contrary to what prosecutors allege, Gillin also said that she never tried to poison Helen Gillin; nor did she take a knife outside to her husband so that he could “finish off” the young woman.
Overly testified that her mother mixed a concoction of bleach and heart medication that her sister later vomited, and also went outside with a knife because Helen Gillin did not die quickly enough.
Jurors will return this morning at 9 a.m.