Homer Roseberry was sentenced to death by the State of Arizona for the murder of Fred Fottler
According to court documents Homer Roseberry and his partners were in the business of ripping off drug dealers and then selling their merchandise as their own. Roseberry would set up a meet with Fred Fottler who would be fatally shot
Homer Roseberry would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
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HOMER R. ROSEBERRY 178096
PO Box 3400
Florence, AZ 85132
United States
Homer Roseberry Case
In 1997, on a trip to California in their motorhome, Roseberry and his wife, Diane, met members of a marijuana-smuggling ring known as the Pembertons. In late 1998 and early 1999, Roseberry was paid by the Pembertons to transport three loads of marijuana in his motorhome from Arizona to Michigan.
¶ 4 In early October of 2000, Roseberry agreed to transport more than one thousand pounds of marijuana. When Roseberry arrived in Phoenix to pick up the load, the Pembertons informed him that Fred Fottler would accompany him to protect the goods. Several large duffle bags of marijuana were then loaded into the motorhome.
¶ 5 On October 20, 2000, Roseberry set off from Phoenix. At that point, pursuant to a scheme devised by Roseberry and his friend, Charles Dvoracek, Dvoracek traveled to Wickenberg, Arizona, where he was supposed to intercept and steal the motorhome and marijuana while Roseberry and Fottler ate at a Denny’s restaurant. So in the early morning hours of October 21, 2000, Dvoracek parked his truck on the side of the road and waited for the motorhome to stop at Denny’s. But the motorhome did not stay at the restaurant; instead, after pulling off the road, Roseberry drove the motorhome back onto the highway and continued north toward his home in Nevada.
¶ 6 Dvoracek followed the motorhome, which Roseberry soon pulled over onto the shoulder of the road. As Dvoracek pulled in behind it, he heard two pops. Roseberry stepped out of the motorhome and told Dvoracek that he had “shot the guy” the Pembertons had sent to accompany him on the drug run. Roseberry explained that he pulled the motorhome over because Fottler had fallen asleep on the couch. He seized the opportunity to shoot Fottler in the back of the head.
¶ 7 Because Fottler was still making gurgling noises, Roseberry returned to the motorhome and shot him a third time. Roseberry and Dvoracek then wrapped Fottler’s body in a blanket and dumped it into the gully on the side of the road.
¶ 8 As Roseberry drove north through Arizona, he threw his gun out the window of the motorhome. Roseberry and Dvoracek stopped in Kingman, Arizona, to remove other evidence of the crime. They took a blood-stained sheet from the motorhome and threw it over a fence. They also buried Fottler’s wallet and moved one of the duffle bags of marijuana from the motorhome to Dvoracek’s truck so Dvoracek could sell the drugs to raise money in case it became necessary to bail Roseberry out of jail.
¶ 9 When the men arrived at Roseberry’s home in Henderson, Nevada, on October 21, 2000, they put the motorhome and drugs into storage.
¶ 10 Later that day, Roseberry confided to his wife, Diane, that he killed Fottler so he could steal the marijuana and sell it himself. Roseberry told her that his story was going to be that “some Mexicans” with guns were on board the motorhome with him and the victim, and they had killed Fottler while Roseberry was out of the vehicle.
¶ 11 Diane called her brother, Otis Sonny Bowman, and asked him to fly in from Indiana, which he did in the early morning hours of October 22, 2000. Two drug dealers flew in with Bowman. The drug dealers agreed to purchase about 300 pounds of marijuana, which Bowman later transported to Ohio in Roseberry’s motorhome. Roseberry and Dvoracek split the money from the sale.
¶ 12 Dvoracek’s neighbor, Steven Berkowitz, also transported three loads of marijuana to Ohio for Roseberry and Dvoracek. On his third trip, however, Berkowitz was stopped by the local highway patrol and arrested for drug possession.
