DA denies request to overturn conviction of man convicted alongside Glynn Simmons
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna denied a request Tuesday to exonerate and overturn the conviction of a man convicted in a 1974 Edmond murder, despite the fact courts already declaring his co-defendant innocent.
Don Roberts was convicted alongside Glynn Simmons in 1975 for the 1974 killing of Carolyn Sue Rogers inside an Edmond Liquor store.
Edmond Police detectives interviewed witness Belinda Brown three days after the murder; she was still in the hospital recovering. She had been shot in the back of the head.
Brown was 18 years old at the time. She described two assailants for composite sketch artist, Jim Garr.
“I think she was in a state of shock and just glad to be alive,” said Garr.
According to the record of the police interview, the lead detective, Sergeant Tony Garrett, asked Brown, “If you were given more time, could you remember anything else?”
Brown told police, “If I wait much longer it would get all jumbled up in my mind.”
After that, the case began to run cold for investigators.
Under pressure to solve the crime, detectives organized some additional lineups at Oklahoma City Police Headquarters.
Investigators went back to the Brown with the new lineup of people.
Police comprised the lineup with Black men who’d been arrested at a party in Northeast Oklahoma City.
Brown ultimately participated in eight different lineups, in which she identified at least five different Black men. But Simmons and Roberts were not among them.
Despite that, investigators zeroed in on Simmons and Roberts, and ultimately charged them with murder.
Both Roberts and Simmons maintained they were innocent, and not even in Oklahoma at the time of the crime.
Roberts told investigators he was in Texas at the time.
In 1975, Edmond Police checked into Roberts’ alibi.
They made a trip to Texas and found Roberts punched a time clock at his job on the day of the murder, but ultimately they did not believe the evidence of his alibi to be truthful.
Simmons said he was in Louisiana at the time. Investigators never attempted to verify Simmons’ alibi.
In court, for the first time during their preliminary hearing, Brown pointed the finger at Glynn Simmons and Don Roberts as the men she saw commit the crime.
Prosecutors never mentioned to jurors that she failed to pick them out of lineups until that point.
Ultimately, the jury convicted Roberts and Simmons, and sentenced them to death. They later became life sentences after a change in the law.
News 4 began documenting their quest for freedom in 2003.
It would come out that the case against them was plagued with issues, including the fact prosecutors failed to disclose their key witness never picked Simmons or Roberts out of a lineup.
Roberts was eventually let out on parole in 2008.
But Simmons stayed behind bars until last year, when Simmons filed a request for post-conviction relief with Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna. In response, Behenna granted him a new trial.
A judge would go on toss out his murder conviction.
Behenna held a town hall event Tuesday evening. Simmons was in the audience. Behenna pointed Simmons out to the crowd, and touted his exoneration as one of her achievements.
Even though Roberts has been out of jail for 16 years, he is still living as a convicted man.
"Sometimes I try to build myself up to feeling free,” Roberts told News 4 on Tuesday. “Then I stumble out here to reality, to remember that, you're not free. You can’t go out and get a job. I need a job now. But my convictions hold me back."
His ongoing struggles are why attorneys for Roberts filed a request with Behenna back in February, asking her to exonerate Roberts and vacate his murder conviction, just like what had been done for Simmons.
On Tuesday morning, Roberts’ attorney Joe Norwood, who also represented Simmons, received Behenna's response to that request.
“They filed a response saying they oppose that, essentially,” Norwood said.
In her response, Behenna argued too much time has passed for Roberts to be able to request post-conviction relief.
She also argued the state's own admitted mistake, that prosecutors never mentioned their key witness failed to identify Roberts or Simmons in a lineup, doesn't matter when it comes to proving Roberts’ innocence.
Behenna held a community town hall in Oklahoma City on Tuesday evening.
Simmons sat in the front row.
While speaking to attendees, Behenna mentioned her office’s role in getting his conviction overturned as one of her proud accomplishments.
“Mr. Simmons’ case come on my radar because [the DA’s office’s post-conviction lawyer] came to me and said, ‘Vicki I think there’s a problem here. Some evidence wasn’t turned over that should have been turned over’ Behenna told the crowd. “Even though there were procedural bars to Mr. Simmons’ case moving forward, I made the decision that—because evidence wasn’t turned over—I questioned whether or not Mr. Simmons received a fair trial, we went ahead an confessed error in that case.”
She went on to point out Simmons to the crowd, who erupted in applause when Behenna told them “he is now free.”
Roberts also attended the town hall. In fact, he attended it with Simmons. He was sitting right next to Simmons in the front row. He was just feet away from Behenna as he listened to her speak about her work to overturn Simmons’ conviction, while knowing she had just denied his request to have his own conviction overturned hours earlier.
“I'm willing to look over that, I've learned to not deal with what I can't control,” Roberts told News 4. “It is not my shame. The shame is on the person who put me there. The shame is on the person who keeps an innocent person in bondage. That's what shame should be. It’s not on the victim. I’m a victim.”
News 4 spoke to Behenna after the event, and asked why she chose to deny Roberts post-conviction relief.
"Because, remember, we look at the facts,” Behenna told News 4. “If you'll read the response that we filed. We went through the facts against John Roberts."
Behenna said even though Simmons and Roberts were tried at the same time, with the same evidence, Roberts’ and Simmons' cases are not the same.
"If you would have read the response, you would have seen that there were other witnesses that made the identification as well,” she told News 4.
News 4 had already read her response prior to talking to her.
In it, she did mention two other witnesses pointed out Roberts at trial, but did not point out Simmons.
However, she also wrote in her response "it must be noted that the assistant district attorney who originally prosecuted this matter has repeatedly declared that he has 'questions' concerning the case."
Norwood says, if this is the way the DA wants to go, he's ready to take Roberts’ request to a judge.
"The judge has already ruled that Glenn Symons is innocent by clear and convincing evidence and that the exculpatory evidence withheld from Glenn was also already was withheld from Don,” Norwood said. “And so that'll happen."
As for Roberts, he’s choosing not to hold animosity toward Behenna.
"She’s a citizen, she’s got a good personality, and I trust her, I trust her heart,” Roberts said. “Yeah, but don't waver too much from the truth. Ah, It will come back and haunt you."
He says he’s faithful that one day, this will all be put behind him.
"The truth is the truth,” Roberts said. “And the truth is I'm innocent. I didn't do that."