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Thread: Robert James Acremant - California

  1. #1
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    Robert James Acremant - California




    Summary of Offense:

    Acremant pleaded guilty to murdering Roxanne Ellis, 53, and Michelle Abdill, 42. Acremant told police he killed the Medford women on December 4, 1995 in a botched attempt to rob their property management company. At the conclusion of the sentencing trial, a jury decided that Acremant should die by lethal injection for the murders. On October 27, 1997, Acremant also admitted killing Scott George, a 23-year-old Visalia man in October 1995.

    Acremant was sentenced to death in Tulare County on October 3, 2002.

    An additional death sentence in Oregon was changed to life imprisonment.

  2. #2
    Administrator Michael's Avatar
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    Acremant's past drew admiration

    1980s friends recall man who worked hard

    While others partied during their military service, Robert James Acremant worked 12-hour days and studied every night, earning his bachelor's degree in two years.

    "I had a great deal of admiration for Bob," said Sidney Pierce, who served in the Air Force with Acremant for three years at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico in the late 1980s. "The drive he had is just something you don't see."

    Acremant's friends during his military service and a registered nurse, a man in his third year of medical school and an FBI special agent all said they admired Acremant's ambition and work ethic. They said they expected great things from the exemplary young man.

    But Monday, they all testified in the sentencing phase of Acremant's double-murder trial.

    Acremant, 29, pleaded guilty last year to murdering Roxanne Ellis, 53, and Michelle Abdill, 42. Acremant told police he killed the Medford women Dec. 4, 1995, in a botched attempt to rob their property management company. At the conclusion of the sentencing trial, a jury will decide if Acremant will die by lethal injection for the murders.

    Acremant also admitted killing a Visalia, Calif., man in October 1995 and will face a trial in California that also could end up in a death sentence.

    As the defense began presenting its case Monday, attorneys attempted to show something of the man before he became a murderer.

    Pierce, a registered nurse, told the jury that Acremant worked and studied hard because he wanted to retire before he was 35. He didn't chase women. Once they were watching the movie "Scarface" and Acremant agreed with Al Pacino's character, who said:

    "When you get money, you get power. And when you get power, you get women."

    Instead of drinking with the other Air Force enlisted men, Acremant and a small group of friends would go hiking when they needed time away.

    When a picture of one of these trips was shown in the courtroom, Acremant smiled. The photo showed Acremant standing next to a rock formation, his backpack loaded down with a sleeping mat and sunglasses shading his eyes.

    When Acremant argued with others, instead of resorting to fisticuffs he would run to the library, Pierce said.

    "Bob wasn't physically violent, he was the intellectual type," Pierce said. "He would go to the library and find it in a book, and then show the person."

    Alan Savoy, a third-year medical student, said he remembered Acremant working extra hours to cover for those who didn't.

    "He had a great reputation for being a hard worker," Savoy said. "For being there. For being solid."

    Sergio Borrego, an FBI agent, was Acremant's roommate during the last few years the two were in the Air Force. Borrego was the only other person trying to work the long Air Force hours and go to school at Holloman Air Force base, Savoy said.

    Borrego said: "We both pushed each other to study."

    After he left the Air Force, Acremant earned his master's degree, then went to work for a Southern California branch of Roadway Express, a worldwide trucking company, in 1991.

    "Bob was an extremely motivated, focused individual," said Wally Blodgett, Acremant's superior for two years beginning in 1992. "He was one of the most competent, conscientious individuals I've ever worked with."

    After two years, Blodgett recommended Acremant's promotion to efficiency expert, a position in which Acremant tried to improve the efficiency of terminals in the district.

    District manager Ralph Santarelli became Acremant's boss. Santarelli said Acremant did a great job and was in no danger of being fired or laid off. He was steadily promoted. Acremant left his $50,000-a-year job in May 1995 to start a software company. The company failed.

    Santarelli said Roadway Express would have rehired Acremant if he had asked for his job back.
    No murder can be so cruel that there are not still useful imbeciles who do gloss over the murderer and apologize.

  3. #3
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On March 18, 2015, Acremant filed his opening brief on direct appeal before the California Supreme Court.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...doc_no=S110804

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    Acremant's case has become fully briefed today on direct appeal before the California Supreme Court.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...doc_no=S110804

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Oregon murderer Acremant dies on death row

    By Barney Lerten
    News Channel 21

    A California man convicted of murdering a lesbian couple in Medford in 1995 and a California man the same year died Friday morning on death row at the Oregon State Penitentiary, the state Department of Corrections reported.

    Robert James Acremant, 50, who died in his single-person cell, was convicted of aggravated murder in 1997 and the prior year of two counts of first-degree kidnapping and one count of first-degree robbery. He also was convicted of killing a man in California

    The Mail Tribune reports Acremant lured Roxanne Ellis and Michelle Abdill to a Medford duplex apartment on Dec. 4, 1995, where he bound them with duct tape and shot them in the head.

    As with all in-custody deaths, Oregon State Police have been notified and the state medical examiner will determine the cause of death, the agency said.

    Prison officials released no further details about his death, but said, "DOC takes all in-custody deaths seriously. The agency is responsible for the care and custody of 14,800 men and women who are incarcerated in the 14 institutions across the state."

    Acremant's death sentence was reduced to life in prison in 2011 after he was diagnosed as delusional and unable to aid in his own appeals. That reduced his sentence to life without the possibility of parole for the murder, abduction and robbery of Roxanne Ellis and Michelle Abdill.

    Authorities say he remained on death row for the 1995 killing of Scott George in Visalia, California.

    Acremant had complained for years that he heard voices and claimed to have a transmitter in his head so others could control him.

    In 2011, Gov. John Kitzhaber announced a moratorium on executions in Oregon, canceling a planned execution and ordering a review of the death penalty. Current Gov. Kate Brown has since affirmed her commitment to the moratorium.

    There are currently 30 inmates on Oregon's death row. Only one was convicted in Central Oregon, Randy Lee Guzek, now 49, who was convicted and first sentenced to death in 1988 in the murders of Rod and Lois Houser at their Terrebonne home the previous year, when he was 18.

    Guzek has been sentenced to death three more times since, after previous death sentences were overturned on procedural grounds. The Oregon Supreme Court upheld the most recent conviction in November 2015.

    https://www.ktvz.com/news/oregon-mur...-row/827232596

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