ROBBERY FOR DRUGS ENDS WITH THREE DEAD

Three dead bodies found Aug. 9, 1992, at 31 N. Henderson St. gave John Brown, Morley Swingle and Kenneth McManaman a common interest that should finally die on Wednesday.

Their interest is Gary Lee Roll.

Roll, 48, was found guilty of murdering Randy and Sherry Scheper. Eight years later, he will be executed.

The police detective, county prosecutor and defense attorney will not be in Potosi, Mo., to witness Roll's death. The two law enforcement officials say their duties were done when Roll was charged and later sentenced to die. McManaman, Roll's attorney, said he dreads the wait.

But all agree they won't forget Roll.

Lt. John Brown of the Cape Girardeau Police Department can't recall any cases that he has worked on more than Roll's. Even after the Major Case Squad gave up, several police and deputies from the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department were assigned to the case full time for weeks.

Little evidence was available at the Scheper's residence, but Randy Scheper's reputation as a small-time drug dealer led Brown to believe the deaths were drug related.

Every drug user or dealer police could think of was brought in for questioning, Brown said.

"We were even able to make some separate drug cases in the process of doing the interviews," he said.

Police found one group of six they believed were likely suspects. Even on the day that a note was received by a teen-age boy calling himself "Del Orfo," investigators were working on making a case against the six, Brown said.

Del Orfo, or Ben Roberts, was a friend of John W. Browne Jr. Browne rode along with Roll and David Rhodes on the night of the murders. He stood outside the house while the killing took place.

After the murders, Browne told Roberts he was afraid Roll might kill him.

So on Oct. 25, 1992, Browne put a tape recorder in his pocket and went to talk with Roll. They talked about the murders.

Browne later gave the tape to Roberts and said if something should happen to him the tape should be given to the police.

But Roberts didn't wait for something to happen.

He gave the following note to police: "Gary Rhodes (177) killed Randy (Henderson) ect. 2 witnesses to the murder live in fear of him. 1 other than I knows he is guilty and will not talk. I am Del Orfo. I will provide more info and evidence for any reward money."

Roberts added conditions to the note, including that he would not testify.

Brown said police detective Zeb Williams met with Roberts at a restaurant to discuss the note.

Police might have solved the case without Del Orfo, Brown said, but it did give them a springboard toward building a case against Roll.

Police got Roberts to agree to wear a recording device and arrange a meeting with Roll on Nov. 3, 1992.

"We prepared him to ask key questions that only police and the perpetrators would know," Brown said.

Numerous law enforcement officers were parked in locations near Roll's house when Roberts went to meet him. Everyone was on edge, nervous about Roll figuring out their plan.

But Roll didn't.

"After that night we were kind of celebrating, because we knew we had a case," Brown said.

Authorities move in

Early in the morning on Nov. 4, 1992, a SWAT team from the Missouri Highway Patrol and a police special response squad raided Roll's house. Brown witnessed the raid with other police from a hilltop about a half mile away, he said.

"I guess they wanted to keep us out of the way," he said.

The SWAT team used a battering ram to come in Roll's back door and tossed flash grenades into the house. The grenades were highly visible from the hilltop, Brown said.

Ironically, it was Roll's brother, FBI special agent Butch Roll, who had trained the SWAT team members, Brown said.

The lightening-bright, lightening quick entrance was planned based on information that Roll slept on a couch with a gun within arm's reach, a stocked gun cabinet was in the living room where he slept, and he had a large dog.

"This was to make sure no one was hurt, and it worked," Brown said. "The dog just walked off to the basement whimpering after those flash grenades."

Roll's son Luke, who was 16 at the time, later led police to a spot in the woods 50 yards behind the house where he had buried the gun, knife and ammunition used to kill the three Schepers.

Luke Roll was cooperative with police but very emotional, Brown said.

"We all felt sorry for him," the detective said.

Aggravating circumstances

Prosecutor Morley Swingle still lauds the work that police did in building cases against Roll and his two accomplices.

Police were able to locate the handgun permit issued to Roll in 1977 when he purchased the .357 Magnum used in the murders, Swingle said.

If such a volume of evidence with telling, minute details had not been available, Swingle said he might not have sought the death penalty against Roll.

"If there were any question about a case from some mental factor, I wouldn't seek the death penalty," Swingle said. "For me, guilt has to be proved beyond all doubt, instead of just reasonable doubt."

Missouri law requires a murder case to include one of 14 specific aggravating factors, including multiple homicides, for a prosecutor to seek the death penalty.

In cases that Swingle has handled from start to finish, he has sought the death penalty six times. Three of those cases, including Roll's, resulted in a death sentence. In the other three, circumstances involved either possible technicalities that could have stopped prosecution or a decision by victim's relatives, Swingle said.

In 1990, Marvin Goad pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for killing a clerk during a robbery. He got life in prison without parole.

"The difference between him and Roll was that he killed one, while Roll killed three," Swingle said.

Kenneth A. Bundy received life without parole in a 1994 murder. Relatives of the victim told Swingle life in prison would be enough, the prosecutor said.

"I'd rather be sure that he got first-degree murder than opening up a chance that he might not be prosecuted," Swingle said.

Samuel J. Denny got life without parole for a 1994 murder of a two-year-old girl. The victim's mother decided not to pursue a death sentence.

"It was safer to make sure that he never walked the streets again," Swingle said.

In Roll's case, Swingle said neither he nor the victims' relatives had any doubts about the death penalty.

Speculation that Roll was influenced by narcotics during the murders was never credible, Swingle said. He points to the tape recording from Del Orfo.

Swingle highlights a comment made by Roll that it would've been possible to get up to $800 more in cash from the Schepers if they had not bought a car a few days before the killings.

"It refutes the 'high' defense," Swingle said. "When you listen to the tape, you hear a cold-blooded killer."

Another key point for Swingle involved testimony from a psychologist from the Veterans Administration Hospital in Poplar Bluff, Mo. The psychologist, who had Roll as a patient for three years prior to the murders, had seen Roll five days before the killings. He had told Swingle Roll never exhibited any behaviors that could be called drug-influenced.

"You talk about a perfect fact situation for a prosecutor, this was it," Swingle said.

This is why Swingle refused to talk with Roll's defense attorney on the eve of the trial about bargaining for a lighter sentence in exchange for a guilty plea.

Roll made two attempts to plead guilty on the first day of the trial. Only the second was convincing enough for Boone County Circuit Judge Frank Conley to accept.

"Gary tried to plead the next day, but the first time he took the stand he wouldn't admit to what he did," Swingle said.

Preparing a defense

Kenneth McManaman, Roll's attorney, said he was apprehensive about his client pleading guilty. Without a deal from Swingle, Roll had no guarantees, the lawyer said.

McManaman believed Roll had a good chance of not getting the death penalty when he pleaded guilty.

"He doesn't fit the typical profile as the type of person who goes out and murders," McManaman said.

The attorney had known Roll for years, although they were never more than acquaintances, McManaman said. When McManaman was a senior at Southeast Missouri State University, Roll was a freshman. They were members of the same fraternity.

Later, in 1978, Roll and his father put siding on McManaman's house in Jackson, Mo.

"I knew him well enough that when his mom and brother told me that he couldn't have done this, I believed," McManaman said.

When McManaman heard Roll had been arrested, he contacted Roll's family.

"I told them if there was anything I could do, let me know," he said. "I didn't mean it necessarily professionally."

McManaman waited several months before receiving discovery information from the prosecutor's investigation of Roll. It was 1,900 pages.

"I read through those with Butch (Roll)," the attorney said. "After reading, and learning what was said on tape, we found that he might be more involved than we thought."

Roll had maintained that the tape recording made by police had been edited and taken out of context.

Taking Roll at his word, McManaman continued to prepare his defense.

"In general, I'm out there defending everyone's constitutional rights," McManaman said. "When you look at the Constitution, it's more important to let someone who might not be innocent go than to punish an innocent man."

A different story

But on the evening of Aug. 29, 1993, Roll started to tell McManaman a different story.

McManaman had gone to the Boone County Jail in Columbia, Mo., to prepare Roll for the next day in court. Roll told his attorney that he wanted to plead guilty to two of the murders.

Until that point, he had told McManaman that he stood outside the Schepers' house while his accomplices did the killing, his attorney said.

"He started talking about his family and son," McManaman said. "He said he didn't want to put them through any more pain."

Roll's son Luke was scheduled to testify as a witness against his father.

In jail Roll first recalled shooting Randy Scheper, and later hitting Sherry Scheper with his gun. But he could not remember stabbing Curtis Scheper. Roll said both his accomplices, Browne and David Rhodes, were in the house with him, and he wasn't sure who killed Curtis Scheper.

After Roll's confession, McManaman said he thought to himself that it would be impossible to allow Roll to testify.

McManaman sought out Swingle at his motel, and told him Roll was willing to plead guilty to two murders. But Swingle didn't want a deal, McManaman said.

Before court started the next day, McManaman told Judge Conley that Roll wanted to plead guilty. But after Roll gave an unclear explanation, telling the judge he couldn't remember certain details, the plea was ignored.

"Gary had been more forthright the night before," McManaman said. "He was just afraid to say those things in front of the judge."

So the trial continued with jury selection, an opening statement by Swingle and testimony from a Cape Girardeau police officer.

During dinner that evening, Roll again told his attorney he wants to plead guilty, McManaman said.

Court reconvened that evening, and Roll told the judge exactly what he had told his attorney the night before, McManaman said.

"This time, he didn't hedge," the attorney said.

Mitigating factors

When the death penalty is at stake, guilty pleas are seldom made, McManaman said.

"Most courts will use a plea in a murder case as a mitigating factor," McManaman said. "At least 50 percent of the time, they'll get life without parole."

When Roll testified at his sentencing hearing, the fact that he had been dependent on several strong narcotics as doctor-prescribed painkillers for years was emphasized. This should have had an impact on Roll's sentence, but it didn't, McManaman said.

The law in military courts, which allows intoxication as a mitigating factor for murder charges, does not apply in Missouri courts. McManaman, who serves as a military judge in the Navy reserve, prefers the military model.

At the sentencing hearing on Nov. 5, 1993, Roll took the stand and went through the events that took place.

Roll told how he fired a shot at Randy Scheper because he thought he had a gun, and he struck Sherry Scheper in the face with his gun before he and his accomplices left.

After his testimony, he sat on the witness stand for several minutes. He sobbed and repeated, "I'm sorry."

After Roll was sentenced, McManaman said he didn't continue to maintain contact with his client.

"I've have been curious about how Gary was, but I didn't think checking would be appropriate," McManaman said.

McManaman wasn't sure if he would be called to testify at an appeals hearing, he said.

McManaman has suffered panic and anxiety attacks from thinking about what else he could have done for Roll.

"I have never forgotten him," the attorney said. "I knew him like he was."