Prosecutor: Suspect kills, robs and then lies about it

Robert Jardin had only met Rick a few times.

He had never met Bub prior to the night of Oct. 28, 2006.

The three of them rode together to a house on 333 Korbus Road. Jardin sat in the car while Rick and Bub went inside and killed Patrick and Evelyn DePalma.

That was the story given by Robert Jardin while he sat on the witness stand during his murder trial last week.

Prosecutor Pete Magrino pressed on those statements during his closing arguments Monday morning. He took aim at Jardin's credibility.

"He doesn't know anything about Rick," said Magrino, who was conveying disbelief. "He doesn't know anything about this guy, Bub ... He had met Rick a few times to get drugs from him ... and (Rick is) going to take (Jardin) along during a home invasion, let alone a murder?"

Patrick, 84, and Evelyn DePalma, 79, were found dead in their Masaryktown home after a concerned relative arrived and noticed the house was dark, two sheds were open and a car was missing from the garage.

The couple were stabbed a total of 14 times, according to the autopsy report.

Masaryktown is a rural community located south of Brooksville along U.S. 41.

Magrino on Friday also tried to discredit Jardin's claims he was overcome with fear when he walked into the house and discovered two homicides had just taken place.

"When he got waved in ... he saw the dead bodies and he got scared and he panicked," Magrino said.

"He's a block mason," he continued. "He's been a bouncer. He's been in bar fights. And he's scared? He panicked? He just stayed there and he didn't leave?"

Magrino said Jardin's stories he told while on the stand "fly in the face of common sense."

Magrino also harped on Jardin's claims that Rick had threatened to harm his three children if he ever said anything to police.

The defendant said he rarely discussed anything with Rick, a man he barely knew.

If they talked about anything other than drugs, it was about work, Jardin said.

"There was no mention at all about the defendant telling Rick that he had children," Magrino told jurors. "But that's what he tells you ... I guess he's no longer afraid of Rick or the safety of his children."

Detectives who questioned Jardin said he had mentioned names of other people who were with him at the DePalma house the night of the killings. One of them, he said, has since committed suicide.

Authorities accused Jardin of giving them names of ghosts, according to court testimony.

Jardin is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count each of burglary, armed robbery and grand theft. If convicted of his murder charges, he could face the death penalty.

Defense attorney Alan Fanter, said the state failed to present evidence showing Jardin had committed murder.

He said detectives "misled" Jardin during his interrogation in 2008 when he was brought in to discuss his alibi during a bar fight in Brooksville. Once cleared of that crime, another detective came into the room and asked him questions about the DePalma case.

Many of his statements during that interview were ruled inadmissible in court. Circuit Judge Jack Springstead said the detectives violated the defendant's Miranda rights when they refused to release him after he had asked to leave.

Fanter mentioned Jardin's fingerprints were not left at the scene. He said the wounds suffered by the DePalmas were consistent with someone who was right-handed. Jardin is left-handed.

He mentioned a single hair found on the body of Evelyn DePalma belonged to an "African-American." Jardin is white.

Fanter said the Hernando County Sheriff's Office admitted the investigation was "targeted." He wondered why more leads weren't followed.

"Why limit (it)? Why not look at everything?" Fanter said. "It makes no sense."

Jardin's DNA was in the house and some of the items stolen from the DePalma home were found in his possession, including a stereo and a set of car keys, Magrino said.

In the spring of 2008, after the homicides had been moved to the cold case section, the sheriff's office questioned David A. Bostick.

Bostick was a distant relative of the DePalmas.

Deputies said he and two other men were in the house the day the couple were killed. Bostick told detectives he went outside to get a cell phone out of the car and when he returned, the DePalmas lay dead, according to news reports.

Bostick was never charged.

A detective said on the stand last week the case was still considered open in April and suggested more work could be done in the investigation pending the outcome of Jardin's trial.

Jurors had brought suitcases with them when they came to the courtroom Monday. They were expected to deliberate into the night.

If they didn't return with a verdict by 10 p.m., they would be sequestered at a local hotel and resume deliberations Tuesday morning, a court official said.

"They didn't deserve to die that night," Fanter told jurors about the DePalmas. "It was a terrible tragedy. No one deserves to die that way."