Testimony covers fear, terror at Carter’s hands

Published 4:55 pm Tuesday, January 25, 2022

THOMASVILLE — The people who accused Robert Carter of abducting them and holding them against their will pointed to him as their attacker Tuesday.

Carter is on trial for 21 charges, including the 2018 death of Deanna Shirey.

A Sherwood Drive resident who once employed Carter as a handyman said she approached him from behind the bushes at her home. He said he needed a drink of water, she testified, and that his truck had broken down and asked to use her phone.

But his phone calls went unanswered, she said.

“He asked a lot of strange questions about my family,” she said. 

After no one came to pick him up, she said she became anxious. She said she could take him where she needed to go but Carter produced a gun she said looked like a handgun to her.

“I tried to stay calm,” she said. “I tried to follow his commands.”

Carter told her he wanted money, she testified. She gave him the money in her pocket book. He wanted her debit card and she gave him the PIN. He also wanted her to cash a check.

He duct taped her hands and used the bed post on her bed to secure her while he left, she said. 

She said Carter did not have his normal demeanor.

“He was determined to get what he wanted,” she said. “He said the police are after me for something I didn’t do.”

Carter made her drink two big vodka tonics in order for her to lose consciousness. When she awoke, her white Toyota Tacoma was gone, along with Carter, she said.

She managed to get to a neighbor’s house and call for help.

She said the episode has left her with post traumatic stress disorder.

Ochlocknee family testifies

An Ochlocknee family also abducted by Carter that July 2018 day also testified Tuesday of their ordeal.

Like the previous woman, they had employed Carter as a handyman. 

That morning, the Ochlocknee woman was at home alone as her husband and son were at their jobs at Florida State University. When she went to take the dog to the back yard kennel around 10:30 a.m., Carter was there. 

“The next thing, Robert Carter was at me and had a gun,” she said. 

She said Carter wanted to know if there was anyone else home. She also said Carter asked for her debit card and for her to write him a check. He also duct-taped her hands behind her back, she said. 

Carter also groped her, she testified, and later said he was going to rape her. 

“I didn’t know what he was going to do,” she said. “I told him I save myself for my husband.”

The woman showed him she was on her period, she said, and that may have deterred him.

“And because God was with me,” she said.

Eventually, her son and husband came home and saw the front door ajar. Both men testified that was unusual and they found the woman in the kitchen by the refrigerator. A knife and a pair of scissors were on a kitchen island in front of Carter, all family members testified. 

Carter eventually had the father duct-tape the son’s hands and then he bound the father’s hands. The father also said Carter told them he didn’t want to hurt anyone. The son said Carter never pointed the gun, later discovered to be a BB gun, at anyone.

The husband also testified that Carter said he was running from some corrupt cops.

Around 10:30 p.m. that night, the woman’s mother called — she also had called earlier to warn her about someone on the loose in the area — and the woman ended the conversation by telling her mother she loved her and to tell her father she loved him very much.

“I don’t really express it,” the woman said of the love for her family. 

“That’s when I was most scared,” her husband said. “Because that was out of character for her.”

But it triggered her mother to call the authorities for a welfare check. As Thomas County Sheriff’s deputies arrived, Carter fled out the back door

The event has traumatized the family, all three said.

“I’m doing better,” the woman said. “But I’ll never be who I used to be.”

The search for Carter

U.S. Marshal Marty West described the manhunt that followed and how Carter eventually was captured. 

With K9 units from Leon County (Florida) Sheriff’s Office, helicopters from both Leon County Sheriff’s and the Georgia State Patrol, plus bloodhounds from the state Department of Corrections, teams of officers swarmed over the area. 

That Sunday morning, West said, Carter tried to contact for whom he had performed work and they called 911. At around 3 p.m., that day, one of the officers was trying to step over a log jam in the Ochlockonee River and slipped. 

That’s when he spotted an arm gripping log, West said. 

Officers found Carter fully submerged under the log.

A Georgia Bureau of Investigation forensic biologist testified that DNA found on a cell phone case retrieved from the trash in Carter’s house belonged to Deanna Shirey. However, tests could not show conclusively that any DNA on the cellphone case belonged to Carter.

Defense attorney Rick Collum also questioned Georgia State Patrol Trooper Clay Luke and his search of Carter’s carport and shed on July 6, 2018. Luke was then a crime scene specialist for the GBI. 

Collum has argued that law enforcement did not find Shirey’s body when they first searched Carter’s home on July 6 and that law enforcement contended Carter was in Ochlocknee and on the run from that time until Shirey’s body was discovered July 12.

Law enforcement found Shirey’s body wrapped in a comforter and in a shallow grave on Carter’s property.

Luke said his search of the carport and shed revealed several plastic chairs, a bucket and a large pile of wire. Luke said he had to walk through a narrow path to get to the back and did not notice any dirt having been disturbed, though he said he couldn’t see under the pile of wire and only under one chair.

“What’s under that wire, I can’t testify to,” he said.

Collum also asked if he smelled anything out of the ordinary, and Luke said he did not smell a body on the July 6 search.

Before the jury was brought in, Collum objected to Denise Parnell’s testimony on the first day, claiming it was inflammatory and prejudicial. McDaniel denied the objection.

Carter interjected himself but that drew a swift rebuke from Judge McDaniel.

“You will not talk. Your lawyer will talk,” Judge Brian McDaniel said to Carter. “You are not allowed to act as your own attorney.”

Collum also said his client objected to the presence of television cameras and what he considered a large law enforcement presence in the courtroom.