Category: Death Row Killers

Robert Will was sentenced to death by the State of Texas for the murder of a police officer

According to court documents Robert Will was attempted to steal a vehicle when he was spotted by Harris County Deputy Sheriff Barrett Hill. Hill attempted to place Will into custody however Will would fatally shoot the Officer

Robert Will would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death

Robert Will Photos

Robert Will Now

Name	Robert Gene Will, II
TDCJ Number	999402
Date of Birth	06/29/1978
Date Received	01/28/2002
Age (when Received)	23
Education Level (Highest Grade Completed)	8
Date of Offense	12/04/2000
	Age (at the time of Offense)	22
	County	Harris
	Race	White
	Gender	Male
	Hair Color	Blonde
	Height (in Feet and Inches)	6′ 1″
	Weight (in Pounds)	193
	Eye Color	Blue
	Native County	Harris
	Native State	Texas

Robert Will Case

No one saw Rob Will shoot and kill Harris County Deputy Sheriff Barrett Hill in the still-black morning hours in a Houston bayou on Dec. 4, 2000. No physical evidence linked him to the murder.

Will, now on death row, said that he is innocent, but that he has been represented by ineffective lawyers. He has a new lawyer who faces the daunting challenge of representing Will at this late stage in his appeals.

Witnesses have testified that another man confessed to Deputy Hill’s murder. But in a January ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Keith Ellison lamented that even though he was concerned Will could be innocent, he had to deny his motion for a new trial.

“The questions raised during post-judgment factual development about Will’s actual innocence create disturbing uncertainties,” he wrote. “Federal law does not recognize actual innocence as a mechanism to overturn an otherwise valid conviction.”

Will’s best chance for a new trial may lie with an Arizona case that the U.S. Supreme Court is soon expected to rule on. States across the country are anxiously awaiting the ruling, which could establish that defendants have a constitutional right to adequate appellate lawyers. For some states, that could require major spending on court-appointed lawyers for thousands of convicts.

Will said that Michael Rosario, the man he was with the morning of the slaying, shot Deputy Hill. Since Will was sentenced to death in 2002, four witnesses have testified that Rosario — a Houston police officer’s son with a long felony history — confessed. The state has argued that the witness statements are not credible.

On the morning of the shooting, Will, who was 21 and had a criminal history, and Rosario were stealing parts from a car when two deputies arrived. Will and Rosario ran in different directions. Deputy Hill chased Will, and Deputy Warren Kelly pursued Rosario. Deputy Hill radioed that he had Will in custody. Deputy Kelly radioed that he had lost track of Rosario. Eight seconds later, the radio recorded gunfire, gasping sounds and more gunfire.

Deputy Kelly saw Will flee to a nearby apartment complex. A woman who had been sleeping in her car told the police that Will had held a gun to her neck, said he had “just shot a policeman,” and stole her car.

Deputy Hill’s body was found about a half-hour later along with seven spent shell casings. Will was arrested about 90 miles west of Houston near Brenham. He had a pistol and was bleeding from his left hand.

At Will’s 2002 trial, his lawyers argued that after losing the other officer, Rosario found Deputy Hill and Will, shot the deputy, freed his friend and took off. A cellmate of Rosario’s told the jury that Rosario said “he had no choice but to shoot the cop” and that because his dad was an officer there was “nothing anybody could do.”

Harris County prosecutors argued that as Deputy Hill tried to arrest Will, the young man shot the deputy in his bulletproof vest. The deputy fell over, and Will shot him in the head and face. They said Rosario did not have enough time to run to where the two were.

The lawyer Christopher Downey defended Rosario against charges related to the car parts theft. He no longer represents Rosario, and he said his former client, who has been in and out of prison, is “no saint.” But he said Rosario, who was not charged in the murder, has repeatedly denied that he shot Deputy Hill.

Will was found guilty and sentenced to death. In Will’s first appeal, his state-appointed lawyer, Leslie Ribnik, filed a 29-page boilerplate court document that had little application to Will’s case. Ribnik has defended his work. In 2006, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, at Ribnik’s request, removed him from the list of approved death penalty defense lawyers.

That initial appeal is the main sticking point in Will’s case. Federal courts cannot consider claims an inmate did not raise from the beginning of the process.

In 2006, when Kenneth Williams, an appellate lawyer with 20 years of death row experience, took over, he knew the odds were long.

“You can’t just go into court and say, ‘I’m innocent,’” Williams said. “You have to raise those claims properly.”

He filed an appeal in 2007, arguing that Will was innocent and that his previous counsel was ineffective.

He filed affidavits from three other cellmates of Rosario, who said he had confessed.

https://www.texastribune.org/2012/03/11/death-row-inmates-case-about-more-innocence/