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True Crime Documentary - A Killer’s Gamble The Twisted Story Behind the Eric Smith Case · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

• 0:13
  Speaker 1: He was convicted of a monstrous act.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Eric Smith has served twenty eight years for the killing
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: a four year old Derek Roby in nineteen ninety three.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: We never forget our boy because he was a wonderful
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: child and we miss him terribly. Yeah, a lot of
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: people don't know the full gamma of what we go through,
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: and nor should they. I wouldn't wish this on anyone.
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: It's the first time I've ever let him go anywhere alone,
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: and it was one blockdown the same side of the street.
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: When you have a family member that has been murdered,
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: every time that inmate is up for parole, you relive.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: I think what happened.
• 1:11
  Speaker 5: There are clearly people who make choices which reflect pure evil.
• 1:21
  Speaker 5: In my view, this heads the list.
• 1:25
  Speaker 6: In the events of that morning of August two, nineteen ninety.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: Three, ride through the woods, you gave me a kiss
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: and I said I love you. He says, I love you, mum,
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: and he wouldn't happen off the sidewalk.
• 1:37
  Speaker 6: At some point during the midday I learned that my
• 1:41
  Speaker 6: child was missing in the village of Savona, and consequently
• 1:46
  Speaker 6: a search for Derek began.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Late in the.
• 1:51
  Speaker 5: Afternoon, the body of Derreck Roby was found.
• 1:57
  Speaker 7: It was just a brutal, brutal killing.
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: I've lost my boy, you know, we've lost him.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: He's gone.
• 2:09
  Speaker 5: Our instinct was to believe the killer was some adult,
• 2:15
  Speaker 5: evil person.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: And it's another kid.
• 2:22
  Speaker 8: What do you think of?
• 2:25
  Speaker 9: So you find a defendant guilty of murder in the
• 2:28
  Speaker 9: second degree? Is that unanimous?
• 2:31
  Speaker 10: Yes?
• 2:32
  Speaker 11: Eric Smith was sentenced to nine years to life in prison.
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: First time before the parole board denied.
• 2:45
  Speaker 12: We knew the first one was coming, but then after that,
• 2:48
  Speaker 12: we're going to do this every two years.
• 2:50
  Speaker 13: For them, every two years must have felt like every
• 2:53
  Speaker 13: ten minutes.
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: Second time, or the panel denied.
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: It upsets me the fact that we have to beg
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: to keep this killer behind bars.
• 3:03
  Speaker 10: And you foresee the day when you would say, I
• 3:05
  Speaker 10: don't care whether then it.
• 3:06
  Speaker 13: Matter or not.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: No, we'll take this pain to our grave.
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: Two thousand and six parole denied, two thousand and eight
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: parole denied.
• 3:17
  Speaker 14: You can label me a monster, occult, not a killer, Dami, child,
• 3:22
  Speaker 14: Satan and carnate.
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: Twenty ten parole denied, twenty and twelve denied.
• 3:28
  Speaker 14: I don't care what the name we give you doesn't
• 3:31
  Speaker 14: mean that actually.
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: Am twenty fourteen, two thousand and sixteen, twenty and eighteen. Denied, denied, denied.
• 3:39
  Speaker 9: I can leave the.
• 3:39
  Speaker 14: Society and function as any other one, one individual.
• 3:46
  Speaker 13: Ooh, that last sentence was a chilling one another normal individual?
• 3:51
  Speaker 15: Boy?
• 3:52
  Speaker 13: Is that a reach?
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: Parole granted?
• 3:57
  Speaker 16: Eric Smith, who gained the National Atten Engine almost three
• 4:00
  Speaker 16: decades ago for killing a four year old, has been
• 4:03
  Speaker 16: set free in Savonah.
• 4:06
  Speaker 13: There's one small grocery store on the main street, and
• 4:12
  Speaker 13: all I could imagine was Dorien Roby standing in line
• 4:15
  Speaker 13: at the checkout line and looking behind her and seeing
• 4:20
  Speaker 13: the person who killed her son.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: After being locked up for twenty eight years, Eric Smith,
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: who at age thirteen murdered a child, is now free.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: He's out of parole here in Queens, New York. Smith
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: insists he's a changed man deserving of freedom, that he
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: has a plan for a fresh start, even a fiance,
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: But others worry Eric Smith is still a flat out threat.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: Dyalen Doreen Roby feared this day would come. Our story
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: begins with them. Den rather covered the case for forty
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: eight hours when it first broke a gold in.
• 5:54
  Speaker 10: The summer of nineteen ninety three. Derek Roby and His
• 5:57
  Speaker 10: family lived just down the street from this part. It
• 6:02
  Speaker 10: was and still is, the social center of the small
• 6:04
  Speaker 10: town of Savona, New York.
• 6:07
  Speaker 15: You're looking at me.
• 6:08
  Speaker 12: Watch the ball hunt.
• 6:09
  Speaker 10: Dale Roby coached t ball. It was his son, Derek's
• 6:16
  Speaker 10: favorite game.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Thank god, this one's for you, Mammy, good dad.
• 6:20
  Speaker 10: Derek was all boy all the time.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: You know, he was gonna get me a home around
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: and usually dead.
• 6:31
  Speaker 10: Derek also attended a recreation program here at the park,
• 6:34
  Speaker 10: and Doreene Roby always watched as her son made the
• 6:37
  Speaker 10: short trip. But one August morning, Derek's baby brother was
• 6:42
  Speaker 10: crying and Doreen Roby had her hands full.
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: Dalton was very fossy that morning, and Derek says, sokay, Mom,
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: I'll I'll go by myself.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: You know, it's no problem. The kids are probably going
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: down the street.
• 6:55
  Speaker 10: Derek was nearly five and knew the route very well,
• 6:59
  Speaker 10: so Derene Roby allowed him to walk by himself. She
• 7:02
  Speaker 10: packed his lunch, and off he went.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: He gave me a kiss and I said I love you.
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: He says, I love you, Mom.
• 7:09
  Speaker 10: So he has a block, only a block to go,
• 7:12
  Speaker 10: no streets to cross.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: It was a dead end street. It's the first time
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: I've ever wanting to go anywhere along.
• 7:21
  Speaker 10: A short time later, as storm clouds moved in, Dorry
• 7:25
  Speaker 10: felt something close to panic.
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: I had awful feeling.
• 7:30
  Speaker 10: It began to pour, and Doreen Robe had an overwhelming
• 7:35
  Speaker 10: sense that something was wrong, and.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: I swear that that was the moment he died.
• 7:44
  Speaker 10: He believed that.
• 7:45
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I think that he was letting me know. Derek
• 7:49
  Speaker 7: is very close to us.
• 7:51
  Speaker 5: If there was any way he could tell us he
• 7:53
  Speaker 5: was leaving, he would have tried.
• 7:56
  Speaker 10: Doreen raced to the park to pick up Derek. She
• 7:59
  Speaker 10: was told that he had never arrived. Nearly five hours later,
• 8:06
  Speaker 10: searchers found Derek's body in a small patch of woods,
• 8:10
  Speaker 10: just a few yards from the park and a few
• 8:12
  Speaker 10: hundred yards from his own front door. Locus's Derek had
• 8:17
  Speaker 10: been choked and beaten to death, with rocks neighbors placed
• 8:21
  Speaker 10: across at the scene.
• 8:24
  Speaker 14: The biggest thing I remember was.
• 8:33
  Speaker 10: Go ahead.
• 8:34
  Speaker 13: When you told your dad that I didn't be able
• 8:37
  Speaker 13: to do the things that he did with you?
• 8:40
  Speaker 16: What did come out?
• 8:42
  Speaker 17: Keep reeling.
• 8:43
  Speaker 5: I got Derek's first big fish.
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: Yay.
• 8:48
  Speaker 10: The streets of Savonah were empty as worried parents kept
• 8:51
  Speaker 10: their children inside. The immediate assumption was that Derek Roby's
• 8:56
  Speaker 10: killer was a stranger from out of town. That's what
• 8:59
  Speaker 10: Eric's his grandfather believed.
• 9:01
  Speaker 11: This terrible thing was done. I don't think everybody, for
• 9:05
  Speaker 11: including myself, thought it was an adull.
• 9:09
  Speaker 7: And how could anybody do such a terrible, terrible thing.
• 9:17
  Speaker 10: Eric Smith grew up just across town.
• 9:19
  Speaker 15: Okay, Rick, let me see yourself.
• 9:21
  Speaker 10: And like to spend time with his grandparents, Red and
• 9:24
  Speaker 10: Edie Wilson.
• 9:25
  Speaker 7: He always come in and give us hugs and kisses.
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: Hi.
• 9:29
  Speaker 7: Hi. He loved to be in a crown like fouling around.
• 9:33
  Speaker 7: He definitely wanted to be paid attention to her. Yeah.
• 9:36
  Speaker 10: But Eric's bright red hair and freckles made him a
• 9:39
  Speaker 10: target at school for years, and as a teenager he
• 9:42
  Speaker 10: was seen peddling around town for hours on end alone.
• 9:50
  Speaker 10: Why did he do it?
• 9:52
  Speaker 7: I don't know why he did it.
• 9:54
  Speaker 18: I asked him why he did it? His words almost
• 9:56
  Speaker 18: from Dademoor. I don't know. I just saw this s had,
• 10:00
  Speaker 18: this blonde kid, and I wanted to hurt him.
• 10:40
  Speaker 5: It's hard to comprehend somebody doing what Eric Smith did.
• 10:48
  Speaker 10: On August second, nineteen ninety three, The body of Derek
• 10:52
  Speaker 10: Roby was found in a small patch of woods midway
• 10:56
  Speaker 10: between the park where he was headed and his home.
• 11:03
  Speaker 5: He chose to end Derek Roby's life, and he chose
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: to do it in a way that was much more
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: than just killing.
• 11:15
  Speaker 10: Prosecutor John Tunney vividly remembers the crime scene and the
• 11:19
  Speaker 10: brutality of the murderer.
• 11:21
  Speaker 5: He could have simply killed Derek, but he chose not
• 11:26
  Speaker 5: to simply kill Derek.
• 11:30
  Speaker 8: Directly behind us is the scene where the homicide occurred.
• 11:34
  Speaker 10: Charles Wood was lead investigator. The evidence showed that Derek
• 11:38
  Speaker 10: was lured from the sidewalk and strangled. The killer's identity
• 11:42
  Speaker 10: was then still unknown.
• 11:44
  Speaker 8: Well, then he discovered and dug up one very large
• 11:47
  Speaker 8: rock and one smaller rock, and he battered Derek with
• 11:51
  Speaker 8: those rocks. He went into Derek's lunch bag and he
• 11:58
  Speaker 8: smashed a banana and took Derek's kool aid, and he
• 12:01
  Speaker 8: actually poured that kool aid into the wounds that had
• 12:04
  Speaker 8: been made by the large rocks, and he sodomized Derek
• 12:08
  Speaker 8: with a small stick that he had found.
• 12:12
  Speaker 10: Lastly, the killer arranged Derek's body.
• 12:15
  Speaker 8: The left sneaker had been removed and was lying near
• 12:19
  Speaker 8: Derek's right hand, and his right sneaker had been removed
• 12:24
  Speaker 8: and was lying near Derek's left hand. It almost looked
• 12:28
  Speaker 8: like the body had been posed in that position.
• 12:32
  Speaker 5: Eric continued to deal with Derek's body because he wanted to,
• 12:38
  Speaker 5: because he chose to, and most frighteningly, because he enjoyed it.
• 12:46
  Speaker 10: The word enjoy so disturbing in this context, would come
• 12:51
  Speaker 10: up again and again in the course of the investigation.
• 12:54
  Speaker 10: The very first time was four days after the murder,
• 12:57
  Speaker 10: when Eric Smith walked into the police commands to see
• 13:01
  Speaker 10: if he could be of help in solving the crime.
• 13:04
  Speaker 19: Totally enjoyed it, totally enjoyed it, didn't want it to end.
• 13:07
  Speaker 10: This is John Hips. He and other investigators repeatedly talked
• 13:12
  Speaker 10: with Eric Smith and had no idea that killer was
• 13:15
  Speaker 10: sitting right in front of him.
• 13:16
  Speaker 19: I mean, he's looking right at me. He's you know,
• 13:18
  Speaker 19: he's kind of hunched over a little bit, and he's very,
• 13:21
  Speaker 19: very upeat, very happy. He likes the fact that he's
• 13:24
  Speaker 19: being talked to.
• 13:26
  Speaker 10: At first, Eric denied seeing Derek Roby, but then he
• 13:30
  Speaker 10: abruptly changed his story.
• 13:32
  Speaker 19: He says, right across the street from the open field
• 13:34
  Speaker 19: and that's where I saw Derek. And when he said that,
• 13:37
  Speaker 19: he about knocked me off the chair. He's putting them
• 13:40
  Speaker 19: right on top of the crime scene. I mean, you
• 13:43
  Speaker 19: just got to walk across an open field and you're
• 13:45
  Speaker 19: at the scene where the murder was. So we asked
• 13:50
  Speaker 19: him what was he wearing, and he went on. He
• 13:52
  Speaker 19: said he had a white T shirt on and he
• 13:53
  Speaker 19: had this lunch bag in his hand. Oh can you
• 13:56
  Speaker 19: tell me about the lunch bag? And he said it was.
• 13:57
  Speaker 10: Kind of cool.
• 13:58
  Speaker 13: Really.
• 13:59
  Speaker 10: Investigator pushed Eric to pinpoint where he last saw.
• 14:02
  Speaker 19: Derek, and that's when he got He started to get emotional.
• 14:06
  Speaker 19: Is his voice started cracking. He put his head down
• 14:10
  Speaker 19: and he brings his fist up, and his fists were
• 14:12
  Speaker 19: vibrating a little bit, and he goes, you think I.
• 14:14
  Speaker 10: Killed him, don't you.
• 14:16
  Speaker 19: Myself and the other two investigators are just like wow.
• 14:21
  Speaker 10: Eric has to take a break and his father brought
• 14:23
  Speaker 10: him a glass of kool aid.
• 14:25
  Speaker 19: Just as we get back into it again about where
• 14:28
  Speaker 19: he had seen Derek again, he grabs the red kool
• 14:30
  Speaker 19: aid and just throws it on the ground. Now we
• 14:34
  Speaker 19: all knew that Derek, the boy that was killed, had
• 14:37
  Speaker 19: red kool aid spilled all over him. You know, I'm
• 14:40
  Speaker 19: thinking that, you know, this kid's seen something that's very,
• 14:43
  Speaker 19: very traumatic, and there's a block in there and I
• 14:46
  Speaker 19: can't get around it.
• 14:48
  Speaker 10: The next day, investigators asked Eric to get his bike
• 14:51
  Speaker 10: and show them where he was when he saw Derek Rovin.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: Okay, why don't you go up here?
• 14:56
  Speaker 10: Investigator would was there and as you can see from
• 14:59
  Speaker 10: this police videotape, Eric looked calm as can.
• 15:02
  Speaker 8: Be during the reenactment. I would have to say that
• 15:06
  Speaker 8: he enjoyed us. He was having a good time.
• 15:09
  Speaker 10: But it quickly became obvious that Eric could not have
• 15:12
  Speaker 10: seen all that he described from the distance he claimed
• 15:15
  Speaker 10: to be.
• 15:16
  Speaker 7: It was a discrepancy in Eric's story.
• 15:19
  Speaker 10: Red Wilson, Eric's grandfather, Yeah, he says. The family knew
• 15:25
  Speaker 10: Eric was hiding something.
• 15:26
  Speaker 11: In no way did we feel that he had done it.
• 15:31
  Speaker 11: We felt that he knew something. Maybe somebody had threatened
• 15:35
  Speaker 11: him so he wouldn't tell.
• 15:43
  Speaker 10: Five days after he was killed, Derek Roby was buried
• 15:47
  Speaker 10: in his baseball uniform. Just two days later, his killer confessed.
• 16:00
  Speaker 7: I was there. I was there one My grandson confessed
• 16:09
  Speaker 7: that was It's terrible.
• 16:12
  Speaker 10: Family members sat Eric down and begged him to tell
• 16:16
  Speaker 10: what he knew. The truth was more terrible than they
• 16:19
  Speaker 10: ever imagined.
• 16:20
  Speaker 11: And they just said, what, I'm sorry, Well, I'm sorry
• 16:28
  Speaker 11: I killed at little boy. The question is you know
• 16:41
  Speaker 11: to me?
• 16:42
  Speaker 7: Why?
• 16:43
  Speaker 14: How?
• 16:44
  Speaker 7: How could take life a little more all right?
• 16:50
  Speaker 10: A year after Eric's confession, the question remains, what could
• 16:54
  Speaker 10: possibly compel this child to kill another?
• 16:57
  Speaker 5: Does he know what he's done?
• 16:58
  Speaker 9: Does he know what's wrong?
• 17:00
  Speaker 10: A stricken community is looking to this court room for
• 17:03
  Speaker 10: an answer.
• 17:03
  Speaker 12: The evidence that you're gonna hear in this case is
• 17:05
  Speaker 12: going to be horrible.
• 17:06
  Speaker 10: Will the trial of Eric Smith put an end to
• 17:08
  Speaker 10: the mystery that began on August second, nineteen ninety three,
• 17:12
  Speaker 10: the last day of Derek Roby's short life.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: All rise.
• 17:44
  Speaker 8: The County Court is now in session.
• 17:46
  Speaker 7: The Battle G.
• 17:47
  Speaker 9: Purple Junior presiding.
• 17:49
  Speaker 10: The trial of the people versus Eric Smith is finally underway.
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: Is about that talk weighed forty pounds?
• 18:01
  Speaker 10: Prosecuting Attorney John Tunney?
• 18:03
  Speaker 16: He lived four years and ten months and that person
• 18:09
  Speaker 16: killed him.
• 18:10
  Speaker 5: Eric Smith choked and battered the young life out of
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: Derek Roby.
• 18:18
  Speaker 10: In New York State, murder is the one crime for
• 18:20
  Speaker 10: which a thirteen year old can be tried in adult court.
• 18:24
  Speaker 7: You're a father of five, that's correct.
• 18:26
  Speaker 10: He must have thought about that, must think about it
• 18:29
  Speaker 10: in the context of trying a thirteen year old son
• 18:33
  Speaker 10: of another family.
• 18:36
  Speaker 5: Yes, but you know what I first thought of it
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: was when I looked.
• 18:40
  Speaker 13: At four year old Derek Roby.
• 18:43
  Speaker 16: The face of every one of my five children was
• 18:46
  Speaker 16: superimposed on that child's body.
• 18:52
  Speaker 10: At the heart of this trial, the haunting question why
• 18:56
  Speaker 10: did Eric kill?
• 18:58
  Speaker 13: The fact is that Eric chose to do something horrible.
• 19:02
  Speaker 10: Defense attorney Kevin Bradley says, there was no choice.
• 19:06
  Speaker 5: Eric Smith suffers from a very serious mental disease.
• 19:10
  Speaker 12: To pick this up and throw this.
• 19:15
  Speaker 9: Down on a little boy's head.
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: Does that suggests calm, deliberate action, a plan. We're gonna
• 19:24
  Speaker 5: hear testimony by people that say Eric just seemed like
• 19:27
  Speaker 5: a normal child and then the rage explodes. It does
• 19:31
  Speaker 5: not diminish the fact that he understood what he was doing.
• 19:34
  Speaker 10: Tonny says, it's murder, plain and simple.
• 19:38
  Speaker 16: Eric analyzed the situation and chose to do it.
• 19:43
  Speaker 10: To help him with his case, Tunny will be calling
• 19:45
  Speaker 10: on Derek's parents, Dale and Doreen Roby, she has.
• 19:49
  Speaker 5: To personalize the tragedy, the loss, the terror to bring
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: Derek Roby the person into that courtroom, describe Derek.
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: He was my cute little firecracker.
• 20:04
  Speaker 10: But bringing Derek Roby into the courtroom.
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: He was my little t ball player, a very good
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: athlete is.
• 20:11
  Speaker 10: Not going to be easy.
• 20:12
  Speaker 9: How did he get along with Iraq?
• 20:13
  Speaker 12: With people Derek.
• 20:15
  Speaker 5: Participated in, the in the recreation program or what was
• 20:18
  Speaker 5: he participating in?
• 20:19
  Speaker 9: I'm going to jek again.
• 20:20
  Speaker 10: At this point, the judge agrees and Doreen is not
• 20:23
  Speaker 10: permitted to say much at all about Derek.
• 20:27
  Speaker 11: I wish I would have gotten a chance to talk
• 20:29
  Speaker 11: about Derek a little more.
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: It really wasn't fair that I didn't get to tell
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: them what kind.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Of kid he was.
• 20:39
  Speaker 10: It's time for the defense to present its case. Bradley
• 20:42
  Speaker 10: begins by calling on two people who know more about
• 20:46
  Speaker 10: Eric than anyone else, his mother, Tammy Smith and his
• 20:49
  Speaker 10: stepfather Ted Smith.
• 20:51
  Speaker 12: The county card is now reconvened.
• 20:53
  Speaker 10: The jury heard that as a toddler, Eric through temper
• 20:56
  Speaker 10: tantrums and banged his head on the floor. He had
• 21:00
  Speaker 10: speech problems, was held back in school and relentlessly bullied.
• 21:07
  Speaker 15: He would say things like I'm stupid, I'm nobody, I'm
• 21:11
  Speaker 15: you know, I'm never gonna be anybody.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: That kind of stuff.
• 21:14
  Speaker 17: I remember him coming up to me in the kitchen.
• 21:16
  Speaker 17: He was really upset and he was crunching his fists
• 21:19
  Speaker 17: and shaking and told me that he said, Dad, I
• 21:21
  Speaker 17: need help. I feel like I want to hurt somebody,
• 21:24
  Speaker 17: and he said, yes, I do, I want to hurt something.
• 21:28
  Speaker 15: At one point he turned and told me that he
• 21:30
  Speaker 15: did it. I asked him why. He just kept saying,
• 21:37
  Speaker 15: I don't know, I don't know, and he cried.
• 21:41
  Speaker 10: Defense psychiatrist doctor Stephen Herman diagnosed Eric with intermittent explosive
• 21:46
  Speaker 10: disorder uncontrollable rage.
• 21:49
  Speaker 20: People who have this disorder describe feeling as if they're
• 21:54
  Speaker 20: about to explode. After the episodic rage, the child may
• 21:59
  Speaker 20: have here to be quote normal.
• 22:02
  Speaker 10: An expert for the prosecution disagreed with doctor Herman's diagnosis.
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: It's a rear disorder rarely seen at the age that.
• 22:12
  Speaker 10: Eric is, and specialists from both sides subjected Eric to
• 22:17
  Speaker 10: extensive medical testing. They examined brain function, hormone levels and
• 22:23
  Speaker 10: found nothing to explain his violent behavior. Because of the
• 22:28
  Speaker 10: sexual nature of his crime. The question of whether Eric
• 22:31
  Speaker 10: was abused was repeatedly raised at trial, but repeatedly denied.
• 22:37
  Speaker 5: Did he indicate to you generally and consistently that he
• 22:40
  Speaker 5: had not been either physically or sexually abused.
• 22:42
  Speaker 20: Yes, he has always indicated that.
• 22:45
  Speaker 10: However, there was testimony that Eric's older sister, Stacy Hevner,
• 22:49
  Speaker 10: was sexually abused by their stepfather.
• 22:53
  Speaker 15: He molested me. I'd want to know if he was molested,
• 22:57
  Speaker 15: there had been something bothering him.
• 22:59
  Speaker 10: Still, there was absolutely no evidence that Ted Smith or
• 23:03
  Speaker 10: anyone else sexually abused Eric.
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: Are their issues?
• 23:07
  Speaker 9: Are their problems?
• 23:08
  Speaker 13: Sure, but it does not regularly produce killers.
• 23:16
  Speaker 10: Did he know what he was doing?
• 23:18
  Speaker 16: Did he know when he was strangling Derek that he
• 23:21
  Speaker 16: was strangling a child? And if he knew that what
• 23:25
  Speaker 16: he was doing was wrong, that he shouldn't have been
• 23:26
  Speaker 16: doing it, then he can have every psychological psychiatric problem in.
• 23:31
  Speaker 5: The world, and he's still.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: Responsible for what he did under the law.
• 23:36
  Speaker 10: Under the law, but what does the jury believe?
• 23:44
  Speaker 13: She thinks they have a verdict?
• 23:53
  Speaker 5: All right, the county for it is now reconvened.
• 24:00
  Speaker 9: So you find a defendant guilty of murder in the
• 24:03
  Speaker 9: second degree. Yes, is that unanimous?
• 24:07
  Speaker 10: Yes. Eric's parents, Ted and Tammy Smith were devastated. Convinced
• 24:12
  Speaker 10: their child was sick taking young man in custody, he
• 24:15
  Speaker 10: would be sentenced to the maximum nine years to life
• 24:18
  Speaker 10: in prison. The murdered boys parents, Dale and Dereen Roby,
• 24:24
  Speaker 10: cried with relief, not knowing that they were being sentenced too.
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: The Roby's they're serving a life sentence.
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: Every time that is up for parole, they relive it,
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: so it's just a nightmare for them.
• 24:41
  Speaker 12: It really felt like it. You know, at a certain point,
• 24:44
  Speaker 12: why do we have to wasn't the crime enough.
• 25:08
  Speaker 9: Take a young man in custody?
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: When Eric Smith was sentenced, was there a sense now
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: we can get on with our lives.
• 25:19
  Speaker 12: You hear the nine years to life, and I think
• 25:22
  Speaker 12: back then everybody was focusing on the life side of it.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: Dal and Doreen Robie were relieved that the boy who
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: murdered their beloved son was locked away.
• 25:34
  Speaker 12: We were still trying to get over our loss. Then
• 25:40
  Speaker 12: I think we almost got settled in per a year
• 25:42
  Speaker 12: or two. Then it hit us.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: What hit them was the harsh reality that Derek's killer
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: would one day be eligible for release. Eric Smith's first
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: parole hearing was in two thousand and two.
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: They could decide that, well, now he's done his time
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: and we're gonna let him go. But scares the hell
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: out of me.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: The Robys weren't allowed inside the closed door hearing, so
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: they wrote letters and made home videos to remind the
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: board about their Roger right devastating loss.
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: It upsets me the fact that we have to beg
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: to keep this killer behind bars.
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: Smith's parole was denied, but two years later he was
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: back before the board.
• 26:31
  Speaker 14: Hi, my name is Eric Smith. We first met me
• 26:34
  Speaker 14: eleven years ago.
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: In two thousand and four. Smith was twenty four years old.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: This is a statement he read for our forty eight
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: hours cameras.
• 26:42
  Speaker 14: I know my actions have caused a terrible loss in
• 26:45
  Speaker 14: the Roby family, and for that I'm truly sorry.
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: I think that Eric Smith was incredibly troubled, and I
• 26:55
  Speaker 4: think that he was a dangerous young man.
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: Joni Johnston is a clinical forensic psychologist. For more than
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: twenty years, she's been evaluating inmates who are up for parole.
• 27:07
  Speaker 4: When we're looking at a very inexact science, if you will,
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: trying to predict whether somebody is dangerous It's like balancing
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: a scale.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Are we willing to take a risk?
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: Johnston has never met Eric Smith, but we asked her
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: to look at his case.
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: I don't see Eric Smith at all as a kid
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: who snapped. I see him as a kid who escalated
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: from hurting animals starting at around age eleven, and who
• 27:36
  Speaker 4: eventually progressed to hurting a child.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: She also read transcripts of his parole hearings.
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: Two thousand and four. Was really the most frightening. This
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: is somebody who goes into a tremendous amount of detail
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: in terms of what he did.
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: Back then. John Tunney shared some of smith old the parole.
• 28:01
  Speaker 13: Boy question, you convinced him to go to this field?
• 28:04
  Speaker 7: What did you do next?
• 28:06
  Speaker 14: Answer?
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: Put my hands around him and strangled him.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: All these years later, Eric Smith's words are still chilling.
• 28:15
  Speaker 13: When you were doing that? Was that something that gave
• 28:17
  Speaker 13: you a good feeling answer at the moment, it did.
• 28:22
  Speaker 10: Yes.
• 28:23
  Speaker 4: Probably the most significant and frightening thing is this is
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: a kid where the narrative seems to have been this
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: kind of rage or this person's inability to control his anger,
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: and yet the emotion he expresses is pleasure or enjoyment.
• 28:38
  Speaker 13: Question. But why do you think that was? Answer? Because
• 28:42
  Speaker 13: of instead of me being hurt, I was hurting somebody else.
• 28:50
  Speaker 21: Wow.
• 28:52
  Speaker 13: Growing up I was always picked on, disrespected, made fun of.
• 28:57
  Speaker 13: Eric was tired of being the victor him in his mind,
• 29:01
  Speaker 13: and he wanted to see what it felt like to
• 29:03
  Speaker 13: be the victimizer.
• 29:06
  Speaker 21: There's a question, mister Smith, if you had not admitted
• 29:09
  Speaker 21: to someone that you had done this, do you think
• 29:11
  Speaker 21: it would have been a fair statement to say that
• 29:13
  Speaker 21: you probably would have done it again?
• 29:17
  Speaker 10: Answer? Yes.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: That confirmed Tunny's belief that Smith at thirteen was a
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: budding serial killer.
• 29:27
  Speaker 13: I was afraid then, and frankly, as I sit here now,
• 29:31
  Speaker 13: I think that Eric Smith may very well have done
• 29:35
  Speaker 13: it again because it was such a positive experience for him.
• 29:40
  Speaker 21: It made him feel good.
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: He got a lot out of it.
• 29:43
  Speaker 13: Had he not been identified, he wouldn't have paid a price.
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: The Parole Board's decision in two thousand and four was
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: no surprise, but for the Robi's there was always another
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: hearing looming. Must have felt like a weight hanging right
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: over your head.
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: Yes, there's all of these really happy times that are
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: supposed to happen throughout your life, but there's always that.
• 30:09
  Speaker 12: We always got a letter about three or four months
• 30:12
  Speaker 12: prior to that. Ours always fell around Christmas.
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: You know, here putting the Christmas tree up, and we're
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: reading this letter that here we go again. It just
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: made me angry.
• 30:28
  Speaker 14: It's understandable that, you know, they would never want me
• 30:30
  Speaker 14: to be out in society.
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: This is Eric Smith in two thousand and nine, just
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: months before his fifth parole, hearing my anger.
• 30:39
  Speaker 14: Wasn't directed at Derek at all. It was directed at
• 30:42
  Speaker 14: all the other guys we used to pick on me,
• 30:45
  Speaker 14: And when I was torturing and killing Derek, that was
• 30:52
  Speaker 14: what I saw I had.
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: Smith, almost thirty, was interviewed by W E. N YTV
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: as he prepared to face the boy.
• 31:01
  Speaker 14: The only thing that I can say to him is
• 31:04
  Speaker 14: I'm not the same person. There's not a day that
• 31:07
  Speaker 14: goes by in some way, shape or form that I'm
• 31:10
  Speaker 14: life forced to.
• 31:12
  Speaker 7: Remember what I didd.
• 31:14
  Speaker 14: I'm automatically thinking I killed Derek in the pain that
• 31:17
  Speaker 14: I call his daalely.
• 31:18
  Speaker 7: Door mean mowing.
• 31:21
  Speaker 13: The problem is how sincere is it versus how contrived
• 31:27
  Speaker 13: or calculated it is. I certainly can't tell as I
• 31:29
  Speaker 13: sit here, you can't no for us to have any
• 31:32
  Speaker 13: real hope. He has to be accurate when he says,
• 31:37
  Speaker 13: you know, I'm different, I'm self aware, and I have
• 31:40
  Speaker 13: every reason in the world to behave.
• 31:44
  Speaker 21: It's not a question if does he believe it?
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: Is it true?
• 31:48
  Speaker 7: Is it accurate? Exactly?
• 31:52
  Speaker 14: I didn't kill Derek, and for that, you know, I
• 31:56
  Speaker 14: am sorry, and there's nothing I can do to bring
• 31:59
  Speaker 14: him back. I mean, if I have such places with
• 32:01
  Speaker 14: him and take a grave for him to live.
• 32:02
  Speaker 10: I do.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: In the second, remorse is important for sure.
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: Jony Johnston also wants to know if it's the truth,
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: but cautions that expressions of remorse that a parole hearing
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: can be difficult to judge.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: Is it genuine remorse?
• 32:18
  Speaker 4: Let me tell you there is no psychological test, There
• 32:22
  Speaker 4: is no face, there is no behavioral indicator of remorse.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: We don't really know if this remorse is real.
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: The parole board in twenty ten turned him down again,
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: but as the years passed, Johnston says, Smith seemed to
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: be changing.
• 32:41
  Speaker 4: You're starting to see some compassion from him for other people.
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: So I'm seeing a little bit of hope from him.
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: Is Eric Smith growing or is he simply refining his message?
• 32:56
  Speaker 4: I think both certainly, parole boards have to always separate
• 33:00
  Speaker 4: that out, which is why they're not just relying on
• 33:04
  Speaker 4: what this inmate is saying in the parole hearing. Thank
• 33:08
  Speaker 4: the Lord, They're going to be looking at all this
• 33:11
  Speaker 4: person's history. What is this person done or not done
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: in the two years since he's been here. They're looking
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: at the parole interview as one piece of that puzzle.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: But for the Robi's decades of endless parole hearings have
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: taken a toll.
• 33:29
  Speaker 3: It's not fair that we have to keep doing this.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: Did you ever lose the energy to keep going with this?
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: I can't anymore?
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, he would say, but we're doing it
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: for him in his memory, And I'm.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: Like, you're right.
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: And I know that some people probably think Jesus should
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: just get over this and move on, but any parent
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: that has ever lost a child knows that you don't
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: ever get over it.
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: On October fifth, twenty twenty one, forty one year old
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: Eric Smith went before the Parole Board for the eleventh time.
• 34:13
  Speaker 4: You have somebody who's completed a ton of programs, he's
• 34:16
  Speaker 4: got some more educational goals. His risk is low, according
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: to risk assessment that have been done.
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: Smith, He even told them he was engaged. He says his
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: fiance was studying to be a lawyer and wrote him
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: asking about the juvenile justice system. Over time, he says,
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: they ended up falling in love.
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: Eric Smith at thirteen is not the same person that
• 34:44
  Speaker 4: he is at thirty one or at forty one.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: He has changed.
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: We all changed, and you kind of go, what else
• 34:50
  Speaker 4: can he do to prove that he is no longer
• 34:55
  Speaker 4: a danger to society? Now at the point where it
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: becomes is this about punishment or about rehabilitation?
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: Breaking news, the Savonah man who killed a four year
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: old boy in nineteen ninety three has been granted parole.
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: Dale was at work when he heard the news he'd
• 35:10
  Speaker 2: been dreading for so many years and called Dorian.
• 35:14
  Speaker 12: We found each other on the porch and gave each
• 35:16
  Speaker 12: other a hug.
• 35:20
  Speaker 13: I have some sympathy for the people who are called
• 35:25
  Speaker 13: upon to make that decision, and that's why I have
• 35:28
  Speaker 13: such hope that they're right.
• 35:31
  Speaker 21: At the end of the day. Still a little bit
• 35:33
  Speaker 21: of a gamble.
• 35:34
  Speaker 13: Oh no, no, it's a huge gamble. This parole decision
• 35:38
  Speaker 13: is a high risk enterprise, to be sure.
• 35:47
  Speaker 22: Do you think Eric Smith has changed. Go back to
• 35:50
  Speaker 22: the beginning and review the case at forty eight hours
• 35:53
  Speaker 22: dot com.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: We are here as a community to stand together.
• 36:10
  Speaker 17: For justice for Derek Roby and Dale and Dorry Roby.
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: Weeks after Eric Smith was granted parole, dozens gathered in
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: Savonah to peacefully protest his release.
• 36:23
  Speaker 12: They wanted to remember Derek because all the attention was
• 36:27
  Speaker 12: now on Eric being released, so they didn't want people
• 36:30
  Speaker 12: to forget.
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: It was very touching.
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: Many in Savonah feared Smith wanted to move back to
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: live with his mother.
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: I wasn't so much worried about us as I was
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: everybody else.
• 36:46
  Speaker 12: I just knew where. A lot of the people in town,
• 36:49
  Speaker 12: the village stood.
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we don't want him here. Better not send him here.
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: And the parole board agreed. Smith's release was delayed for
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: months until approved. How saying was found for him in Queens,
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: New York, more than two hundred miles away from Savonah.
• 37:06
  Speaker 22: He's breaking news from news A.
• 37:08
  Speaker 11: Eric Smith, who's been behind bars for nearly three decades
• 37:12
  Speaker 11: is no longer in prison.
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: And then, on February first, twenty twenty two, after being
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: locked up for twenty eight years, Eric Smith quietly slipped
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: out of Woodburn Correctional Facility, out of view of cameras
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: of Freeman.
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: I understand why, after so many years, they decided to
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: give him a chance. And that's fine, you know, for
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: him and his family.
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: It would begin a new chapter for the Robys who
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: had fought for so long to keep Smith in prison.
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: You know, he's been released, but in a way, so
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: have we. No more parole. I can get on with
• 37:58
  Speaker 3: our lives now the true healing can begin.
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: Doreen says. Part of the healing process has been letting
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: go of her anger.
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: I would rather laugh than cry any day of the week.
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: If you let it, it's going to eat you alive,
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: the anger.
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: Yes, The Roadbyes say they choose not to think about
• 38:19
  Speaker 2: Eric Smith, but instead focus on friends and family, especially
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: their son Dalton, now thirty.
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: You have to find the joy in life. You have
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: to enjoy each other because life is way too short,
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: and just live.
• 38:38
  Speaker 12: Aug a second. The day we lost him. We always
• 38:41
  Speaker 12: try to go do something fun. White ice cream with sprinkles,
• 38:51
  Speaker 12: That's what Derek called vanilla, So we try to do a.
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: Wherever we are, we have to go him. Let's go
• 39:01
  Speaker 3: find ice cream.
• 39:05
  Speaker 12: Even though it's said it's happy.
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: As for Eric Smith. Since his release, we've been unable
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: to contact him, But in two thousand and nine he
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: told w e n YTV he had big plans for
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: his future.
• 39:25
  Speaker 14: I want to, you know, get married, raise a family,
• 39:30
  Speaker 14: yeah all donald, you know, a job, pursue the American Van.
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: He also said he wanted to counsel kids who've been
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: bullied just like he had been. The question is will
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: Eric Smith be a success story or somebody that were
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: pointing to and saying system blew it with that one.
• 39:53
  Speaker 13: That's that's exactly right. I keep going back to my
• 39:56
  Speaker 13: hope I will tell back.
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: In the summer of nineteen ninety three, to honor Derek Roby,
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: volunteers including Eric Smith's great grandfather, bulldozed the scene of
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: the crime and put in a new ballfield in memory
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: of the little t ball player.
• 40:16
  Speaker 12: Watch the ball hunt.
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: Today up on the hill watching over the field is
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: a statue of Derek. It was sculpted by Doreen's uncle
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: and funded by people from all over the country.
• 40:36
  Speaker 12: Dedicated to be a gentle reminder of what childhood is
• 40:40
  Speaker 12: meant to be.
• 40:41
  Speaker 13: Derek J.
• 40:41
  Speaker 3: Roby, I love that he's the only person in town
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: that has a statue. A lot of people called him
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: the mayor of Savona because he was.
• 40:57
  Speaker 22: It is the pretty well known.
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: That four years and ten months.
• 41:03
  Speaker 3: Yes, he he was so much fun. He just was
• 41:08
  Speaker 3: a great kid.
• 41:21
  Speaker 22: A Silicon Valley executive worth millions kidnapped.
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: Char was in the prime of his life, very brilliant, relaxed,
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: but highly motivated.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: He was dabbling in the cannabis industry as well. He
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: was targeted for a reason.
• 41:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah, are you too, sir?
• 41:35
  Speaker 22: What happened forty eight hours Saturday on CBS