PORT ANGELES — Four years ago, accused killer Thomas Martin Roberts allegedly told an acquaintance that if a police officer ever tried to arrest him at his home, the officer would “end up in a body bag.”
That statement and others allegedly made by Roberts prior to the shooting death of Deputy Wally Davis can be used in Roberts’ upcoming trial, Clallam County Superior Court Judge George L. Wood said this week.
Roberts, 55, is scheduled to be tried Oct. 21 for aggravated first-degree murder in the Aug. 5, 2000, shooting death of Davis, who responded to Roberts’ east Port Angeles house on a routine call.
He has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity and remains in the Clallam County jail.
Wood on Monday granted a motion by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Dick Suryan to use Roberts’ prior statements in trial as proof of his intent to kill Davis.
“We felt that this was the only way we could prove premeditation on the part of Roberts,” Prosecuting Attorney Chris Shea said Tuesday.
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