The recent executions of Kenneth Williams, Lendell Lee Jack H. Jones Jr. and Marcel W. Williams in Arkansas may have invoked sympathy for the Devil from some folks around the United State and the world, but very little across the Natural State.
Twenty-nine individuals sit on Arkansas’ Death Row. One of those, Roger Coulter, has been playing the system for 27½ years after a conviction by the Ashley County Circuit Court of capital murder and being sentenced to death for killing a 5-year-old girl during, while in the act of raping her.
There has been no activity in Coulter’s case since he was denied on a delayed appeal in February of 2004. No further appeals or court actions.
Just a killer sitting on death row for the past 13 years that the state has fed, clothed and provided health care for in the interim.
Just a few yards down from Coulter on the concrete cell block that constitutes Death Row at the Varner Super Max facility in Grady is the cell of inmate SK956, which he has called home since May of 2000.
Or he did until this past week, when he was returned to Polk County in the latest of what seems to the family of his victim to be just another step in a long list of endless appeals and pleas in an effort to cheat death.
Karl Roberts, then 35, was convicted in May 2000 by a Polk County Circuit Court jury of capital murder in the May 17, 1999, rape and strangling of his 12-year-old niece, Andria “Andi” Brewer.
Roberts, during the July 2000 sentencing phase of his trial told the court, “I want to die.”
Andi’s body was found May 17, 1999, two days after disappearing from a relative’s home in Hatfield in Polk County. Andi’s body was located near Cove in a clear-cut area three days later.
Andi had fought her attacker until the end, promising not to tell about the rape if the killer would just take her home. The murderer was her uncle by marriage.
Roberts’ defense attorney argued he suffered a head injury when hit by a dump truck at age 12 and lost 15 percent of his brain function, including a portion tied to the ability to understand consequences for one’s actions.
Prosecutors argued Roberts knew right from wrong and they convinced a jury.
After his conviction and sentence, Roberts waived his rights to any appeals.
A judge, however, said his sentence would automatically be appealed to the state Supreme Court. The high court in April reviewed Roberts’ case and in a 6-1 decision upheld the death sentence.
Roberts has made several efforts to overturn his conviction on appeals on technicalities, obviously changing his mind about his court room wish to die.
Just hours before he was scheduled to take the needle in 2004 Roberts directed his defense team to file a stay of execution motion starting a process that has left him with plenty of time for sitting around at the Arkansas Department of Corrections for the 18 years since Andi’s murder.
“It’s ridiculous and disgusting that we’re still having to deal with this,” said Rebecca Petty, Andi’s mother and an Arkansas State Representative for District 94, which covers Rogers and part of Bentonville in northwest Arkansas. “I still wake up every day and I can’t believe this happened. And then we have to go through it all again.”
Andi’s dad tried to take matters into his own hands in 2014, jumping the railing in the court room at one of the appeal hearings. Bailiffs wrestled him to the ground before he could complete his mission.
Greg Brewer was arrested on suspicion of third-degree assault, obstructing governmental operations and resisting arrest. He was released on $730 bail and eventually the charges were dropped.
A newly-elected state representative called the then-fresh prosecutor in Polk County, who was adamant that “this kind of behavior won’t be tolerated in my county,” to convince them of their error of their ways.
“I told them they would be a fool, given the raw emotions and mindset of the community, to ever pursue charges against Greg,” said Petty, who had been divorced from Andi’s father for almost five years at that point. “People were lined up to pay his bail … the Morgan Nick Foundation stepped in and offered to help.”
At one point in the proceedings Petty was targeted by Robert’s defense team for “taking a picture of their client and posting it online” to inflame passions against the killer when she had found the picture through a Google search and posted it for no other reason than to show the world the face if her daughter’s murderer.
Petty, who has two surviving daughters, says nothing can ever replace what she lost to the demented soul of Karl Roberts.
“Andi was just 12 and reaching that point in her life where she was bratty, smart, witty and a know-it-all … moving from the wonders of childhood to being a young adult,” said Petty. “It was all taken from her and us by this devil.”
The story was showcased on the “Oprah Winfrey Show” as part of the nationwide publicity it received.
Now, as the family makes the drive from various parts of the state to face their loved one’s killer one more time, it’s Deja’ vu all over again.
Petty, who lives on land adjacent to Beaver Lake that her family has owned for years, tries to make all the hearings and court proceedings she can.
To be a presence, if not a voice, for Andi.
“I know how the community supported us back then and you see it again in the wake of the recent murders of the two children among the four people who were killed down there,” said Petty. “My heart goes out to the entire region.’
And as the latest rounds of legal maneuvering take up time and money in Polk County, the family must live with another slap in the face. In addition to seeing Andi’s killer in the courtroom and reliving all testimony that is being put forth to ensure the killer’s rights are being protected, there is the issue of an inmate art show showcasing and possibly selling the jailhouse work of one Karl Roberts.
“The only word I can think of is ‘appalling,'” said Petty. “How can anyone sponsor or sanction something like that?”
Some misguided, short-sighted and extremely liberal minions have created a gallery exhibition at the Kane Gallery in Houston called “Windows on Death Row: Art From Inside and Outside the Prison Walls,” which is exactly what it sounds like.
It’s a for-profit gallery exhibition featuring the “art” of convicted murderers.
Like Karl Roberts.
From the retrospective catalog observations of someone who has had 17 years to develop his marketing plan:
“I have served 15 years and 4 months in solitary confinement. In the image Reality Solitary Confinement, the man in the picture is in silhouette. This symbolizes an empty life in confinement… it portrays the shame, remorse and guilt of having done wrong. The evil spirit on the wall is the battle of the mind – sadness, depression, temptations, thoughts of unforgiveness, and suicidal tendencies. The woman in the picture is a memory of lost relationships and love. The second drawing is of me in the same cell. Only I am looking from the other direction and it is an expression of my faith.”
-Karl Roberts
In addition to the Kane Gallery, you can also thank the enlightened souls in the liberal think-tank that is the University of Southern California which has funded and supports the macabre art show. Support also comes from something called the Department of Foreign Affairs, based in Switzerland.
Ah … but there’s more.
Roberts also submitted a companion piece to his first etching and in the second letter to curator and project manager Anne Hromadka Roberts not only explains his muse, but goes so far as to include a money order deposit slip “for him” should one of his pieces sell.
“I was so glad that you asked if I would like to submit another piece for the exhibit,” Roberts writes. “Also, I would like for ya’ll to try and sell these two pieces and use for your purpose. Take care!”
“P.S. - If not for your purpose enclosed is a money order deposit slip to me. Thank you!”
“I have contacted the Arkansas Department of Corrections about the appropriateness of Death Row inmates taking part in a ‘celebrity’ art show’,” said Petty, switching into her role as the state representative from District 94. “Whether this is something we have to address legislatively or it is something that can be changed internally through ADC policies and procedures. this shouldn’t be happening.”
Contained within this article you will find copies of the two letters the killer wrote to the gallery. His death row prison mugshot. A photograph of a smiling Andi. A video tribute to her too short life. And a picture of the granite headstone marking her final resting place in the Six Mile Cemetery in Hatfield.
What you won’t find are any pictures representing Robert’s artistic efforts accompanying this story. He and the “exhibition don’t deserve the publicity.
And there is something else you won’t find.
No sympathy for the Devil.