Kentucky’s highest court has affirmed the murder conviction and life sentence of a Logan County man convicted in a 2016 shooting.

Demetrius Roberson is not eligible for parole until he serves at least 25 years of his life sentence, handed down after he was found guilty by a jury in 2021 of murder, attempted murder, first-degree robbery and nine counts of first-degree wanton endangerment.

Roberson, 30, was accused of involvement in an Aug. 21, 2016, home invasion at the Russellville apartment of Lexus Bell, 21, who was fatally shot while holding her child.

In all, 11 people, including nine children, were in the two-bedroom apartment during the incident.

Prosecutors said that Roberson was part of a plot that involved recovering drugs and money that was believed to have been in the apartment after being stolen.

Roberson’s defense team at trial put on a number of witnesses who testified that he was at his mother’s home in Bowling Green on the night of the incident and did not travel to Russellville.

His legal team also argued that a number of witnesses against him had a motive to lie.

Five people were eventually convicted of crimes related to the robbery and homicide, though Roberson was the only defendant who took his case to trial.

A number of co-defendants testified to Roberson’s involvement in the robbery, and the prosecution presented evidence that the murder weapon was found in a bag in the car of Roberson’s wife. 

Roberson appealed his conviction to the Kentucky Supreme Court, which issued a 33-page ruling earlier this month that affirmed the conviction.

The court’s ruling addressed eight arguments that attorney Michael Goodwin, representing Roberson during the appeal process, made contesting the conviction.

Goodwin argued that the Logan Circuit Court wrongfully excluded testimony from defense investigator Jessica Shoemaker that Kelsey Hampton had heard Quinton Posey admit to shooting Bell.

Posey was a prosecution witness at the trial and denied ever saying he killed Bell and did not remember being at a gathering with Hampton.

Hampton was witness for the defense, testifying that she could not remember being at a gathering with Posey and later telling the court outside the jury’s presence that she did not remember speaking with Shoemaker. 

Shoemaker stated in court that she interviewed Hampton in 2018, during which Hampton reportedly made the claim of overhearing Posey admitting that he “pulled the trigger.”

The state supreme court ruled that Logan Circuit Judge Joe Hendricks was right to exclude testimony about Posey’s purported statement from Shoemaker, saying that “Posey’s statement could only come into evidence through multiple layers of hearsay.” 

The supreme court also found that Hendricks acted appropriately in admitting the deposition testimony of Tayveon Bibb, a co-defendant who pleaded guilty to crimes connected to the robbery and homicide and who was himself shot to death in Bowling Green before Roberson’s trial.

Roberson argued that Bibb’s deposition should have been excluded from trial because he asserted his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself at numerous points while being cross-examined by Roberson’s legal team and refused to answer several questions.

Bibb refused to answer questions regarding other crimes he claimed to have committed with Roberson, who shot him two weeks before Bell’s death, whether he had committed robberies before and whether he committed other crimes with Deon Young, another co-defendant.

The state supreme court found that Bibb’s refusal to answer those questions “did not frustrate Roberson’s ability to cross-examine Bibb on issues material to Bibb’s testimony.”

The high court devoted a significant portion of its ruling to the testimony of Roberson’s mother, Natasha Williams.

Roberson sought to have evidence from Williams admitted at trial that he broke up with the mother of his child due to an affair she had with Bibb.

The circuit court excluded the evidence, finding it to be based on hearsay.

Roberson’s defense team argued Williams’ testimony about the relationship would show that Roberson was no longer with friends with Bibb on the day of the murder and it would have been unlikely for the two to participate in the crime together.

Williams explained outside the jury’s presence that she was present when Roberson and his child’s mother argued about her affair with Bibb.

The court allowed Williams to testify that Roberson and Bibb were no longer friends at the time Bell was murdered.

“Because this key piece of information was admitted, we cannot conclude that the simple exclusion of why they were not friends ‘substantially swayed’ the verdict,” Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Michelle Keller wrote in the ruling.

Roberson’s appeal also focused on the cross-examination of Williams at trial by Logan County Commonwealth’s Attorney Neil Kerr, arguing that the court should not have allowed Kerr to assert that Williams was lying during her testimony and committing perjury.

Williams testified that Roberson was at her home at Bowling Green on the night of the robbery and did not leave, but when Kerr cross-examined Williams, he asked her why she did not come forward to police or the prosecution with this evidence prior to trial.

Williams asserted that Kerr refused to speak with her, and he responded “I’ve never seen you before,” according to the court’s ruling.

Williams said Kerr had seen her in the courtroom before and tried to get her in trouble for talking while court was in session, to which Kerr responded “That is a lie that you are trying to tell the jury” and then asked if she knew the penalties for perjury.

Roberson argued in his appeal that Kerr’s questioning of Williams was improper, and the supreme court agreed, saying that his statement that Williams was trying to tell the jury a lie was “plainly improper” and that he acted improperly by essentially making himself a witness when he told Williams he had never seen her before.

The supreme court, however, also determined that the questioning tainted the conviction, finding that several other relatives offered similar evidence to support Roberson’s alibi and the prosecution did not similarly improperly question those witnesses.

The jury also asked to rewatch portions of testimony from co-defendant Reba Kirk, who claimed to have been at Williams’ home and was told by Roberson to ask his mother to borrow her car on the night or the robbery.

The jury also rewatched the testimony of Roberson’s wife, and the supreme court determined that the fact that the jury reviewed those two witnesses’ testimony showed that the jury’s verdict hinged more on their statements than Williams’ alibi testimony.

“We simply cannot conclude that manifest injustice resulted from the Commonwealth’s improper questioning of Williams,” Keller wrote in the ruling.

The supreme court also ruled that Hendricks appropriately excluded evidence of specific text messages sent by Roberson’s wife to law enforcement that blamed another person for the murder while allowing general testimony that Roberson’s wife provided information to law enforcement that claimed he was innocent.