Attorneys seek to toss teen’s confession

PALMER — Did a 17-year-old know what he was doing when he agreed to talk to investigators the day he allegedly shot and killed his father? Or was he just trying to appease those questioning him so they’d let him see his mom and wash his father’s blood off of his face and hands?

Superior Court Judge Kari Kristiansen said she will decide which it is soon. Her decision will determine if the confession the teen gave to Alaska State Troopers can be used as evidence in his trial. First, though, she heard attorneys in the case argue their sides Monday afternoon.

The case in question is that of William Samuel Carson Robinson, 17, and dates back about two years ago to February 2012. Robinson’s father, William Robinson Sr., who was 57 when he died, had been arguing with his wife, the younger Robinson’s mother. According to the younger Robinson’s statement to Alaska State Troopers, as the argument escalated the teen took a gun from his bedroom and fired all six rounds at his father.

His attorney, Marcelle McDannel, said that as medics were on their way, dispatchers had the younger Robinson perform CPR on his father, even mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. When he was taken into custody, McDannel said her client sat in his cell in his underwear rather than wear bloody clothes. She played multiple clips of recordings from that night where the teen asks when he’ll be able to clean up.

“Can you do me a favor and grab some snow and wipe my face?” the teen is heard asking a trooper.

“I’m going to leave it just like it is,” the trooper replies.

She said her client also asked for his mother. She said those were the two things he needed — to clean up and to see his mom. But troopers always delayed those requests, saying he could do it later. McDannel said that children who have been abused and neglected tend to respond in two ways to those kinds of delayed requests — they either act out or they try to please the authority figure. She said her client did the latter.

“William was told repeatedly that the investigators were the ones who had authority over him and he needs to seek their approval to get these very basic, primal needs met,” she said.

And then, once he’d seen his mom, washed up and been fed, he refused to say anything else to investigators.

On the other side, though, prosecutor Trina Sears said that far from repeatedly asking for his mother, the younger Robinson mentioned his mother twice. First, he asked to see her and troopers said they would set up a meeting. The second time he asked where she was headed after they left the family home.

Then, before the interview started, troopers read Robinson his Miranda rights. With youthful arrestees, the typical speech about a suspect’s rights includes all the usual stuff — right to remain silent, right to an attorney — and at least one more, the right to speak to your parents.

Immediately after that, Sears told the judge, a trooper told Robinson, “obviously your mom knows you’re here. She’s right out there in the lobby.”

She also pointed out instances where Robinson didn’t do things troopers asked him to, arguing they showed he was capable of exercising free will and not somehow being coerced.

“It was his choice. It was his free choice to talk to the police,” Sears said.

Robinson is being tried in adult court on charges of murder. At the tail end of Monday’s hearing the attorneys settled on a trial date of May 23, though that is subject to change.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.