Decades old cold case headed to court

Zach Beaird
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Henry and Jake Robinson are accused of shooting and killing Claudell Staten along this stretch of Ellerbee Road.

Persistence seems to have paid off for Caddo Sheriff's detectives as the trial of a nearly three-decade old homicide begins.

There were several suspects and an eventual arrest in the 1988 murder of Claudell Staten but the case never made it before a judge. Detectives in the last couple of years have arrested two they believe are connected to not only Staten's killing but also four other homicides in the Shreveport-Bossier City area and one in California between 1980 and 2004.

Henry Robinson, 63, and his brother, Jake Robinson, 62, were booked into Caddo Correctional Center March 2015 and July 2014, respectively. Pre-trial motions for Henry Robinson have started for second-degree murder; he will be back in court Feb. 2 for a hearing.

Henry Robinson
Jake Robinson

Jake Robinson awaits a separate trial in the case for solicitation of murder while Henry Robinson has chosen to represent himself.  Caddo assistant district attorney Ross Owen has been assigned to the case. He wouldn't comment for this story due to the sensitive nature of the case.

The brothers are a part of the Robinson family, whose names are notorious among the Shreveport community and area law enforcement. Their past includes decades of drug dealing, violence and narrowly avoiding conviction for multiple murders, according to news reports and court records.

The brothers also have been indicted in the 1983 murder of Isadore Rozeman, which ended the nearly 30-year imprisonment of Glenn Ford, who had been convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in the case.

Ford's story on CBS, 60 Minutes

Update: Glenn Ford dies

"The Robinsons always had quite a reputation," CPSO Detective Terry Richardson said. "Finding the connection to just one case helped us connect them to a few others."

The night of a murder

On the night of March 20, 1988, a Caddo Parish Sheriff's deputy was called to a remote location along Ellerbe Road in south Caddo Parish in response to a car wreck. Car window glass could be seen on the side of the road along with tire treads that veered off the pavement and into the grass.

The tire tracks led through a ditch, to a downed power pole, through a barbed-wire fence and into an open field. The deputy located a wrecked Cadillac Eldorado, and beside it — a lifeless body.

In 1988, Caddo deputies found Staten's body lying outside a car that had crashed through this ditch, a power pole and a barbed-wire fence.

"I approached the vehicle and noticed a black male lying adjacent to, and on the east side of a 1987 Cadillac Eldorado, burgandy (sic) in color, with Louisiana license plates," CPSO deputy William Lunsford wrote in his incident report. "I checked the black male, and could not locate any pulse or breathing."

It soon became apparentthe crash wasn't the reason for the motionless man lying in the grass. Evidence of gunshot wounds quickly turned an auto accident into a homicide investigation.

The body found in the field later was identified as 44-year-old Staten.

Staten grew up in Shreveport, was known to play cards every week with Henry and Jake Robinson, and he was believed to be involved in the brothers' drug dealings. Also, Staten was married to Henry and Jake Robinson's cousin, and one of his two daughters was dating Henry at the time her father was killed.

The Times reached out to Staten's daughter, Dionne, who didn't respond.

Diane Law was riding in a car with her husband earlier that same evening when they came up behind a Cadillac that was swerving, slowing down and speeding up randomly. When they passed the vehicle, they reported seeing three figures inside, according to police reports at the time.

"The car kept on stopping like it was gonna turn off, but it never did turn off," Law said during an interview with detectives. "And it just came to a complete stop and, well, we almost hit it. But we just came around it and kept going."

Detectives who processed the crime scene also lifted muddy fingerprints off the car that didn't match Staten's.

CPSO's investigation soon led them to Henry Robinson, whose fingerprints matched those on the car. Robinson was arrested but released shortly after when the Caddo Parish District Attorney's office decided to not take the case to court, citing there was "insufficient evidence."

Shreveport attorney Paul Carmouche, who was working for the Caddo DA at the time, ultimately handed over Robinson's release papers less than three weeks following his arrest.

"I always tell my associates to never take a case to trial unless you know you can win it," Carmouche said. "Because if you don't win, that person, even if you're sure they're guilty, can never be convicted for their crimes."

While frustrating to investigators at the time, the decision proved valuable when a CPSO detective made a phone call in 2005 that reopened the closed case.

New details emerge

Richardson called an informant seeking information while investigating the 2004 killing of Bruce Cotton. During this conversation, Jake Robinson was listed as one of the suspected culprits of the crime.

Cotton, a 51-year-old carpenter from Shreveport, was killed in February 2004. Police found Cotton in his car severely beaten and stabbed several times. Authorities say he was tortured to death.

Lead prosecutor apologizes for role in sending man to death row

While investigating the claim of Jake Robinson's involvement in this murder, Richardson began noticing similarities between Cotton and other unsolved murder cases over the past several years, including that of Staten's. He reported both victims shared a similar mark above their right eyes indicative of being punched by someone wearing the same piece of jewelry, court documents reveal.

"In older cases, you’re not looking for the quintessential eyewitness, you’re looking for little pieces," Richardson said. "And you have to take time to gather all the little pieces, because one of them is what’s missing that’ll bring you over the top."

After going through the old case files for the Staten killing, Richardson began retracing the steps of his predecessors. Through interviewing past suspects and witnesses, Richardson found those little pieces.

"Often, witnesses are more willing to open up after so much time has gone by," Richardson said. "They'll tell you things they didn't say before because maybe they were afraid then."

Richardson learned the Robinsons had accused Staten of being a snitch and having their brother arrested. Their brother, John Love Robinson, was sentenced on drug charges only days before Staten was killed.

A decade after reopening the case files, retracing an aged investigation and unearthing new information, it appears Henry and Jake Robinson could provide answers to multiple homicides that have puzzled investigators for years.

"It was well investigated back in '88, but after some years had gone by people seemed more at ease to come forward with information they were afraid to share back then," Richardson said. "Time can be your enemy, or time can be your ally. In this investigation, it was our ally."

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