PORT ANGELES — Thomas Martin Roberts killed a Clallam County sheriff’s deputy two years ago, his defense attorney told a jury Monday at the start of Roberts’ murder trial.
“Tom shot Deputy Wally Davis,” Attorney John Hayden said during opening arguments. “That’s a fact.
“The question for you in this trial is, what was his mental state at the time?”
Roberts is on trial in Clallam County Superior Court for killing Davis on Aug. 5, 2000, when Davis responded to a routine disturbance call at Roberts’ Ennis Creek Road home.
Roberts, who has a history of mental illness, has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity and is facing a murder trial that is expected to last four weeks.
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Full coverage of Monday’s opening day in the murder trial appears in the Tuesday Peninsula Daily News. Click on SUBSCRIBE to get continued exclusive coverage of the trial.
