Accused killer says police never explained rights
Mark D. Edwards, the 20-year-old accused in a quadruple homicide last April, testified Thursday that state police never explained his constitutional rights to remain silent and have an attorney after his arrest. “I didn’t know what I was doing,” said Edwards, accused of the April 13 shooting deaths of Larry and Joanna Bobish, their daughter Krystal and her unborn son.
Despite signing four separate waivers of his rights in less than two hours, Edwards testified, police never explained what he was signing. Although he can read and write, Edwards also testified that he never bothered to look at the forms.
“(Police) told me what I did. They told me I shot Larry (Bobish),” testified Edwards.
His testimony came as part of a bid by Assistant Public Defender Susan Ritz Harper to prevent the confession Edwards allegedly gave to police from being used at his trial. Fayette County Judge Ralph C. Warman will rule on that request later.
In Edwards’ alleged confession to police, he admitted to shooting the Bobish family and to injuring Larry Bobish Jr., who survived the attack. Edwards, however, said that he never agreed to talk to police. He said he wanted an attorney from 3:17 p.m. April 18, when he was first brought to the police barracks after his arrest, until 4:59 p.m., when he completed a written statement to police.
Trooper John Marshall, the arresting officer in the case, testified that Edwards said the word “attorney” when he was read his rights the first time. When Marshall asked Edwards if he did want a lawyer, the trooper testified, Edwards replied that he did.
At that point, Marshall stopped the interview, leaving Cpl. John J. Tobin in the room with Edwards.
While Tobin and Edwards were alone in the room, Tobin testified, Edwards started talking about God and said he wanted to make things “right with God.” Tobin testified that he reminded Edwards that he could not talk to him because he invoked his right to an attorney, and Edwards subsequently waived his right and agreed to talk to police.
The conversation about God, testified Tobin, began before Edwards said the word “attorney,” when he asked Edwards what he had done the day after the Bobish killing. Edwards said he had gone to church, and his girlfriend had already told police that.
Ritz Harper, however, pointed to Marshall’s police report on the interview. That report indicated that as Marshall was leaving the room, Tobin was discussing going to church with Edwards.
Tobin said the church question came earlier, and Marshall later clarified that his report was based on what Tobin told him.
Edwards also claimed that Marshall “coached” him on what to write in a four-page written statement. Edwards signed that statement, which is made up of words written one above the next, in a less-than-coherent form, indicating that he wrote the statement, according to testimony.
Marshall also testified that while Edwards was with police, he asked about the possible penalty in the quadruple homicide.
“Mr. Edwards was basically saying, ‘Go ahead and put me to sleep.’ (Trooper Brian) Mears said, ‘It’s not sleep, it’s dead,'” Marshall testified of the conversation. Mears was present during questioning and took notes, according to testimony.
But Edwards testified he never asked what the penalty was, although troopers told him.
He also said he wasn’t entirely certain why he was arrested in the first place, and he denied that troopers let him know what the charges were against him.
The homicide was discovered when the Bobishes’ Kennedy Street Extension, North Union Township, home was found on fire. Outside the home lay Larry Bobish Jr., who was shot in the head and had a knife wound to his throat. Inside, investigators found the bodies of Larry and Joanna Bobish and Krystal Bobish, all of whom had been shot. Krystal Bobish’s unborn son died from a lack of oxygen.
Edwards was arrested after Larry Bobish Jr. identified him by his first name and then in a photo lineup. Harper also asked that the lineup be suppressed because the men in it do not look similar enough to Edwards. Police theorized that Edwards stole drugs from the Bobish family and then killed them so they would not report the theft.
If convicted of first-degree murder, Edwards faces the death penalty.
Motions to move the trial to another county and to keep jurors from seeing graphic pictures of the crime scene will be dealt with at the time of trial, in accordance with an agreement between Ritz Harper and District Attorney Nancy D. Vernon.