By Joel Anderson, Times Staff Writer
Friday, August 27, 2010
BROOKSVILLE — During a contentious and riveting hour and a half on the witness stand Friday morning, a 35-year-old Brooksville man accused in the stabbing deaths of an elderly Masaryktown couple told jurors that he was merely a bystander to a horrible crime.
Robert Jardin testified that he accepted a ride with a man named "Rick" to find some cocaine one night in late October 2006. Jardin said Rick stopped to pick up another man named "Bub" along the way, and the trio continued to a secluded, beige stucco home near Masaryktown.
Rick and Bub went inside the home, leaving Jardin in the car, Jardin said. About 15 minutes later, Rick beckoned Jardin inside and, as Jardin told authorities, "into a nightmare."
"I could tell things were wrong," Jardin told jurors. "I freaked. I panicked more than anything."
Jardin, 35, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, armed burglary and grand theft in the grisly deaths of Patrick and Evelyn DePalma, ages 84 and 79. If convicted of murder, he could be put to death.
Though authorities have identified only Jardin publicly, court affidavits and hundreds of pages of documents reveal that other suspects still remain at large in the deaths.
Jardin's indictment from August 2008 alleges that he stabbed Evelyn DePalma "multiple times with a knife or other sharp-bladed instrument," but later mentions "others whose identity is currently unknown."
Jardin claims that he does not know the identities of other people who might have been inside the home.
That matters little to prosecutors, who spent a number of hours this week presenting evidence that Jardin was at the crime scene. A DNA analyst told jurors on Thursday that swabbings from a milk jug found in the DePalmas' kitchen showed that there was a 1-in-180 quadrillion chance that someone other than Jardin drank from the container.
Assistant State Attorney Pete Magrino questioned Jardin for more than an hour Friday, repeatedly asking him why he didn't tell authorities about the murder when given the opportunity. Magrino also pressed Jardin for the reason he lied about other people being involved in the murders.
Jardin responded that he told detectives the truth, but later changed his story when they kept asking him questions.
"Police didn't want to believe that story, and I gave them two other names," Jardin said, "hoping that they would leave me alone."
Defense attorneys rested their case after Jardin's testimony. After consulting with jurors, Circuit Judge Jack Springstead decided to send the jury home for the weekend. Closing arguments in the case will begin Monday morning, followed by jury instructions and deliberations.
Joel Anderson can be reached at joelanderson@sptimes.com or (352) 754-6120.