Horace Roberts Jr. rose from the witness stand in the fourth-floor courtroom at the Riverside County Hall of Justice, bent over and pantomimed spreading his buttocks.
“I was just afraid of all this searching going on, stripping naked,” Roberts testified as he recounted the humiliation, terror and despair through almost 20 years in prison, three parole hearings and three murder trials while vainly attempting to convince anyone that he did not strangle his mistress in 1998.
Seven years after DNA evidence exonerated Roberts and a judge declared him factually innocent, Roberts testified Tuesday and Wednesday for the same district attorney’s office that had sent him to prison and against the two men who prosecutors now say DNA evidence suggests murdered 32-year-old Terry Cheek and framed Roberts.
“I didn’t murder Terry Cheek,” the 66-year-old Roberts told Managing Deputy District Attorney Will Robinson and the 10-woman, two-man jury hearing the death penalty murder case. “I loved her.”
Roberts said he now blames only Cheek’s estranged husband, Googie Harris Sr., 67, and the investigators who initially questioned Roberts. Prosecutors say Harris Sr., fearful of losing his Jurupa Valley house to Cheek in a divorce, enlisted the help of his co-defendant, nephew Joaquin Latee Leal III, 58, to kill Cheek, and asked son Googie Rene Harris Jr., 45, to dispose of her body.
“It was a real fearful time,” Roberts told Robinson.
Harris Sr. and Leal watched Roberts’ sometimes tearful testimony silently.
This Oct. 3, 2018 photo provided by the California Innocence Project shows Horace Roberts after his release from Avenal State Prison in Avenal, Calif. Roberts who was wrongly convicted of a 1998 murder in Southern California and spent two decades in prison has filed a federal lawsuit. Roberts on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019, sued Riverside County and officers from its Sheriff’s Department, alleging they failed to turn over exculpatory evidence to prosecutors. (Jenna Little/California Innocence Project via AP)
Harris Sr. and Leal have pleaded not guilty to murder. A special circumstances allegation of murder for financial gain makes the defendants eligible for the death penalty if convicted as charged. Harris Jr. has pleaded guilty to one count of accessory after the fact and is awaiting sentencing.
Investigators seized on circumstantial evidence and Roberts’ own evasiveness to win a conviction after two trials resulted in hung juries. Roberts testified that he attempted to hide his affair, he gave conflicting information on his whereabouts on the night Cheek disappeared and he initially took ownership of a watch found near Cheek’s body where it was dumped on rocks at Lee Lake near Corona.
Roberts’ black Nissan pickup, which Cheek sometimes drove, was found on the 15 Freeway shoulder about two miles from her body. And a black purse with a broken zipper that was seen in Cheek’s possession the night she vanished was found in her belongings retrieved after her death from the Temecula apartment she shared with Roberts, her family members claimed.
Roberts, who is from Georgia, told Robinson in a slow, light southern drawl, that “My heart dropped” when he learned of Cheek’s death. “I had fear, panic. All sorts of emotions was going on. I never had nobody die on me like that. I didn’t know what to do.”
Managing Deputy District Attorney Emily Hanks said during opening statements that Leal confessed to his girlfriend that he helped kill Cheek. Defense co-counsel Joe Galasso said the girlfriend, Nancy Doud, was “completely tweaked out” during the supposed confession and that while Leal helped get rid of the body, it was the Harrises who killed Cheek.
And John Dorr, a co-counsel for Harris Sr., suggested during opening statements that someone other than his client could have killed Cheek.
Harris Jr. testified Monday that his father and Leal killed Cheek.
Nevertheless, investigators immediately focused on Roberts after Cheek’s body was found four days after her death.
This week, Roberts agreed with a statement by Leal’s co-counsel, Peter J. Morreale, that investigators accused him of lying 15-20 times, frequently punctuating their questions with expletives and other vulgar language.
Roberts, who told Morreale that he actually did join in the search for Cheek, added that investigators didn’t care that he repeatedly proclaimed his innocence.
“Even with that pressure, you never buckled?” Morreale said. “You never confessed to something you didn’t do, correct?”
“Correct,” Roberts replied.
Roberts said he met Cheek on the job in 1996 and became romantically involved after several months.
“I was fond of her. She was fun. Joke around. She liked to have a good time,” said Roberts.
“She’s not going to just let you push her around,” he said. “You’re not just going to tell her what she can or can’t do. She’s a 50/50 woman. Either we come together and be equal or it’s just not gonna go with Terry.”
Roberts was a Marine for eight years, but prison life was difficult and he had to put on a tough front to survive, Roberts said.
He told Robinson that he previously characterized prison as a “lion’s den.”
“In the yard with cons, anything can happen and explode at any moment,” Roberts said. “I could get hurt anytime. You got a lot of men fighting and stabbing.”
When Roberts became eligible for parole, Harris Sr. spoke at three hearings in an effort to keep Roberts locked up. Roberts maintained his innocence, even though his attorney at the time told him he stood a better chance of being released if he confessed to the slaying and showed remorse.
The technology to test DNA more closely did not exist during Roberts’ trials. That ability, however, was improved by the time the California Innocence Project began investigating in 2007.
Roberts sued Riverside County after he was released in 2018. The county settled for $11 million to compensate Roberts for losing 20 years of his life.
“Wasn’t worth the $11 million, was it?” Morreale asked.
“No,” Roberts said.
Testimony is scheduled to resume Aug. 5.
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