Court Upholds Death Sentence for Robert Maury, the Tipster Who Was Paid for Finding His Own Victims
Maury collected rewards from a Shasta County crime hotline for leading police to the bodies of women he killed. He argued the hotline promised him anonymity.
Published
Robert Maury collected rewards from a crime hotline for leading police to the bodies of women he had killed. On April 24, 2003, the California Supreme Court ruled that the hotline's promise of anonymity had never protected him, and upheld his death sentence.
Maury had been convicted of the first-degree murders of Averill Weeden, Dawn Berryhill and Belinda Jo Stark in Shasta County, with special circumstances for multiple murder and murder during a robbery. He was also convicted of a separate rape. On appeal he argued that his rights were violated because the Shasta County Secret Witness program, run by a private group to help the police, had promised tipsters they could stay anonymous. The program "only guarantees anonymity to witnesses, and not criminals or tipsters who the police suspect are providing information about their own criminal activities," the court ruled. "Defendant's desire to provide information to obtain a reward was entirely self-motivated," Justice Ming W. Chin wrote for the unanimous court.
His calls began in 1985, after Weeden, who had rented him a room in her home, disappeared that May. His tip led police to her body, and the hotline paid him $500. Police suspected him but lacked evidence to arrest him. In June 1987 Berryhill and Stark disappeared, and calls to the hotline led to both bodies, for $500 and then $1,250. By then police were monitoring the calls, and when Maury went to collect his reward they photographed him. He complained to the hotline that his anonymity had been betrayed, then asked it for another $250 for the location of a victim's purse. He was arrested on November 6, 1987.
A state prosecutor, Stan Cross, said Shasta County prosecutors suspected that Maury had killed "many more people."
Maury's lawyers argued at trial that he had come upon the bodies by chance while out walking and reported them for the rewards, while the jury convicted him of all three murders.
Sources
- People v. Maury, S012852 (Cal. Apr. 24, 2003), Supreme Court of California (via Justia)
- 'Secret Witness' in 3 Killings Loses Appeal, Los Angeles Times (Maura Dolan)