Robert Lee McCullar bound over for trial in Ogden slaying
By Linda Thomson , Deseret News
OGDEN — Robert Lee McCullar, who is charged with fatally slitting a man's throat last year in a fit of rage over some gesture of disrespect, was bound over for trial Friday.He appeared in Ogden's 2nd District Court for a preliminary hearing.
Prosecutors presented three witnesses who insist McCullar confessed he killed Filiberto Bedolla Robles, 49. One witness helped police tape McCullar not only saying that he sliced Robles' throat from ear to ear but actually demonstrating how he did it with his finger.
Meanwhile, defense attorneys pointed instead at a drug-addicted prostitute with a fiery temper as the likely culprit and tried to discredit the female witness who cooperated with police as a jealous harpy who resented McCullar for not lifting a finger to get her out of jail.
Donna Major, a friend and sometime-girlfriend of McCullar, who also worked for him as a prostitute, helped police in the sting that netted video and audio tapes of McCullar saying he killed Robles because Robles stole a cigarette and addressed a racial epithet to McCullar.
Major admitted she went along with police so she would be released from jail, but she said she also wanted McCullar to get help for his anger problem.
There was another motive as well.
"I knew he did it," a visibly nervous Major testified. "That could have been my brother; that could have been me."
But defense attorney James Retallick quizzed Major about her own fury at being in jail and raging about McCullar not doing so much as sending a 59-cent greeting card, much less trying to help with her bail.
Major at one point announced to McCullar: "Believe me, when I get the (expletive) out of here, karma is coming to town and the b----'s name is Donna." "You were angry (that) nobody was doing anything for Donna?" Retallick asked.
"I was not out for revenge," Major said, adding that what she meant was that revenge would come on its own to those who had let her down.
Three defense witnesses speaking through a Spanish interpreter testified that Robles had been involved with a woman named Dawna Finch, who the men said was known in the Hispanic community as a prostitute and drug addict with a violent temper.
Guillermo Espinoza said an agitated Finch once burst into his apartment where some men had gathered, demanded money and, when refused, snatched up a pair of scissors and threatened to kill everyone present. She smashed his TV and threw a can of beer in his face, Espinoza said. The men scraped up some cash and Finch left.
"I'm afraid of her," he said.
Efraim Villanueva, who witnessed the incident, gave a similar account, saying Finch had pinned a man down on a bed and poised the scissors over his face, ready to strike. Pedro Camara-Gonzales testified that Robles, a few days before his death, said he had been threatened by Finch because she wanted money for drugs, but he would not give it to her.
Prosecution witness Nathan Douros testified Friday that McCullar told him at least five times in jailhouse conversations about killing Robles. Another witness from jail, Tory Reynolds, also has testified that McCullar confessed to the crime.
The case is filled with people who have criminal histories, similar-sounding names and multiple aliases, and they give conflicting accounts of what happened and who was where when.
Some say McCullar used a piece of glass to slit Robles' throat, while others indicate he used a knife. Motives for the crime have varied: McCullar has been described as flying into a rage because Robles spit in his face in contempt while another version is he was furious because of the stolen cigarette and racial epithet.
Robles also had as much as $4,000 in cash with him the day before he was killed, but the money was gone when Robles' roommate and half-brother found his bloodied body on Dec. 22, 2009, in bed in his apartment at 2650 Adams Ave.
McCullar, 41, is charged with murder, a first-degree felony, and possession of a weapon by a restricted person, a third-degree felony. His next court date is May 12.
e-mail: lindat@desnews.com