Defendant’s sons testify for prosecution

Defense attorneys for Eddie Robbins laid groundwork Thursday morning to blame someone else for the killings of Fayette County resident David Mangham and Francis Michael Fowler.

Questioning the lead detective on the case Thursday morning, attorney Stacey Flynn asked for the name of the drug dealer who provided Mangham with crack cocaine on a regular basis. Lt. Tracey Carroll said she did not know the drug dealer’s name, but Lt. Col Bruce Jordan, chief of detectives for the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office, would know the name.

Carroll added that the drug dealer was eliminated as a suspect the same day detectives talked to him.

The unnamed drug dealer said that he had never been to Mangham’s home, Carroll said.

“And you took his word for it?” Flynn asked.
"There were other things that we ruled him out for,” Carroll replied.

Robbins is charged with two counts of malice murder, two counts of felony murder and one count of armed robbery for the killings, which prosecutors allege occurred April 23, 2003. That’s the last time Mangham’s cell phone was used, and multiple witnesses told detectives that he depended on that phone for his business so it was unlike him not to return phone calls.

Flynn asked Carroll if detectives looked into financial records and phone records of Miller, the drug dealer and Mangham’s girlfriend, and she replied they did not.

Flynn asked why detectives didn’t pursue other persons as suspects in the killings, including a man named John Miller who Mangham had argued with several days before the killings over a business quarrel and Mangham’s long-time girlfriend, Barbara Sue Snyder.

Carroll said Miller told detectives that he didn’t view the dispute between himself and Mangham as being an argument.

“We asked him if he had a .45 caliber handgun, and he didn’t,” Carroll said.

The girlfriend previously testified that two weeks before the killings, she got into the secret compartment in Mangham’s home that he kept cash in, and she counted 30 $100 bills, with more there that she didn’t count. Several others knew the location of the secret compartment, Carroll testified.

The first unanswered call to Robbins’ cell phone voice mail April 23, 2003 was after 10 a.m., according to Fayette County District Attorney Scott Ballard.

Mangham and Fowler were found dead over a week later at Mangham’s home in the Princeton Chase subdivision off Ga. Highway 314 north. Both men had been shot twice, once in the back of the head, police said.

Police believe robbery of more than $3,000 was the motive for the killings, and Robbins made two cash deposits the same day of the killings in addition to paying his father in law $810 for rent and bills.

Jurors heard testimony Thursday morning about several lies Robbins told detectives in the case, including a story that he had sold a gun to a person who detectives later determined never existed.

That gun, a .45 caliber Colt model, matches the type of gun police have said was used to kill Mangham and Fowler. Neither weapon has been found, but police dug up the backyard of Robbins’ former home in Riverdale in an attempt to find shell casings that had been fired from the gun in a celebratory manner.

In his opening statement Wednesday, Ballard also noted that Robbins lied to detectives when he initially told them he hadn’t been in Fayetteville for several weeks before the killings. He later admitted that he had gone to the local Wal-Mart to get Easter candy, but when he was pressed to say whether the store’s video camera would have recorded his presence, Robbins said he didn’t actually go inside the store, but only drove to the parking lot, Ballard said.

Robbins’ two adult sons testified for the prosecution Wednesday.

Matt Robbins and Bill Robbins said they questioned their dad about the killings days after the bodies were found. They testified that Eddie Robbins told them it was in their "best interest not to know" the answer to the question, but Matt and Bill Robbins didn’t agree about the exact question that elicited the answer.

Matt Robbins said the response came after they asked their father if he was responsible for the killings. Bill Robbins said he thought the answer was in response to a different question about the background of his father's relationship with Mangham.

Matt Robbins also testified that his dad previously owned a Colt .45-caliber handgun, but Bill Robbins said he didn’t recall his dad having such a weapon.

Matt Robbins also testified about finding one of the bodies when he came by Mangham's home after being unable to reach him for several days. Matt Robbins and Mangham went to the same church and were friends, so he became concerned when Mangham didn’t return several messages left on his cell phone.

Matt Robbins said he was still at Mangham’s house after finding the body when his dad called him to see what was going on. Matt Robbins said he explained to his father that Mangham and Fowler were killed, and his dad replied, “Mike who?” intimating that he didn’t know Fowler.

Matt Robbins said that he knew his dad, Mangham and Fowler went to Forest Park High School together, and because Mangham and Fowler used to talk about their school days, he thought his dad knew Fowler too.

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