narrator: A wealthy couple is viciously attacked
on their country estate just outside Atlanta.
- He had been beaten in the head.
I mean, part of his head was caved in.
She had suffered serious head injuries.
narrator: Was this ruthless crime
motivated by jealousy and rage?
- She was having an affair
with a career criminal from Gwinnett County.
narrator: Or could these Southern blue bloods
be hiding a dark family secret?
- They had asked him to store the 140 pounds of marijuana.
- We discovered drugs
and the equipment in a drug business.
narrator: But when police uncover a surprising tip...
- And sure enough, he is seen on surveillance
in the pawn shop,
and they also have his fingerprints.
narrator: The search for the killer
becomes a citywide manhunt.
- Police really wanted to make this arrest
because an attack so violent was a immediate danger
to everybody else in Atlanta.
[dramatic music]
* *
[siren wailing]
narrator: A hop and skip
from Atlanta's bustling downtown scene
is Lawrenceville, Georgia,
a green oasis for Atlanta's well-heeled professionals.
It's a perfect mix of town and country.
- Lawrenceville is considered the countryside--
beautiful homes, acreage, farmland.
Folks who wanted to have a city life and work in Atlanta
but have a taste of a farm life--
Lawrenceville was the perfect place to be.
- It's an excellent place to raise your kids--
good schools, good community, good churches.
- Families flocked there.
There were few of whatever people's fears were
of the city.
narrator: In 1998,
one high-earning couple looking to take advantage
of Lawrenceville's peaceful lifestyle
is 52-year-old Donna Roper
and her husband, 55-year-old Marvin Roper.
- Mrs. Roper worked for a very prominent law firm in Atlanta.
Mr. Roper had recently retired
and was now raising chickens on the property.
narrator: But the couple's dream plan
is cruelly cut short.
- On the morning of October 5, 1998,
the Gwinnett County 911 center received a call
from Miss Roper's employer--
the law firm down in Atlanta.
She had not reported to work that day.
And they wanted to know if a car could be sent out
to check on her status to make sure that she was okay.
[sirens wailing]
narrator: Within minutes,
several officers are dispatched
to the Ropers' residence.
- The Roper residence was located in a rural setting.
The home sat on approximately five acres of land
that was all fenced in.
[indistinct chatter over police radio]
They found that the kitchen door was open.
* *
There was a trail of blood.
[heart beating]
- When you enter a house and find that amount of blood,
you know something's amiss.
Emotionally, you feel out of sorts.
- It led from the kitchen
back into the master bedroom...
where they had found Miss Roper.
- I was with the department for 35 years,
and this has to be one of the top gruesome crime scenes
that I ever came across.
Miss Roper was laying on the bed,
and there was a tremendous amount of blood.
- They couldn't really see for sure if it was a gunshot.
It was just that there was a lot of blood on her face
and in her hair.
- She had suffered serious head injuries
and at first, he thought she was dead.
narrator: Officers quickly check Donna's vital signs,
and to their astonishment, she is still alive.
* *
- She was as near to death as you can get without dying.
* *
The paramedics said, we have to transport her immediately.
[indistinct chatter over police radio]
- This is one of the most brutal crimes I ever covered.
I remember pulling up on the property,
and there were police cars all around.
This was a big story for everybody.
This was covered by the local TV stations
and radio stations.
narrator: As doctors work furiously
to save Donna's life,
investigators notify her family
and then secure a search warrant.
- Once the search warrant was obtained,
the crime-scene technicians moved in
and began their examination of the house.
There was a blood trail that ran from downstairs
and up the steps and ended where she was.
* *
So your first thought is, she was attacked downstairs
and then either dragged or fled up the stairs,
where they thought they had finished her off.
narrator: When technicians
begin collecting blood samples,
they note something peculiar.
- It was dry.
So her body managed to stop the bleeding.
It was clearly indicative
that she had been laying there at least a day.
The whole house was searched for shell casings
because the medics thought that she had been shot.
- But we were not able to locate any evidence
of a firearm or casings
that was used on Miss Roper.
- As police look all around the house,
they can tell that it was ransacked.
* *
Televisions and other electronic items were missing,
and Donna's jewelry was gone.
- There was never a sign of forced entry.
Whoever got into that house and hurt Donna
knew how to get into the house.
There were no fingerprints.
There just really wasn't anything there
that would lead us to a suspect.
- As police talked to the neighbors,
the neighbors told law enforcement
that the Ropers had a red pickup truck
and also had a white Mercedes,
and turns out both of them were gone.
narrator: Not only are the couple's vehicles missing,
so was Donna's husband of 15 years, Marvin Roper.
* *
No one has seen or heard from him in days.
Detectives reach out to the Ropers' inner circle,
asking for information about the couple.
- Marvin initially ran
a car-repair and gas-station business
on a big piece of property near Atlanta.
- Donna--she was like a sister to me.
We spent a lot, a lot of time together.
Donna told me several times about when she first met him.
She had went to the station that he owned,
and she started going on with him,
flirting and kind of cutting up, which she would kind of do.
Marvin, from what I understand,
a very charming person.
After so many years,
he decided to sell the service station.
- He had made a substantial amount of money,
and that's what allowed him to buy the farm.
- It was seven acres,
and it was a poultry farm.
They built that house,
and Donna designed everything on the inside.
Anything she wanted, he would do.
narrator: The couple was content
with just the two of them
and stayed focused on their careers.
- Marvin and Donna didn't have any children.
Donna never wanted children.
- She's very proper, well put together,
and Marvin was the complete opposite.
He ran around in a T-shirt and tennis shoes.
Marvin was a very friendly, outgoing person.
He would talk to you all day long.
- He was kind of a country boy.
She was the city girl.
But something worked,
because they were together for years.
- Based on experience,
statistically, you're more likely to be killed
by a friend or a family member than you are by a stranger.
Marvin was nowhere to be found.
Nobody knew where he was.
He looked pretty suspicious at the point.
It could very well likely be not a burglary
but a domestic situation,
where they had a fight, and he got violent,
hurt her, and then fled.
Our priority that day was, where is Marvin?
Let's find him.
* *
- We put out a BOLO, which is "be on the lookout,"
for Miss Roper's Mercedes
and the truck, which belonged to Marvin.
narrator: Meanwhile, investigators start digging
for anything in the Roper's personal lives
that could have led to the violent assault.
- At the scene, ID techs who were processing
found a diary that turned out to be Donna Roper's diary.
- The diary indicated that the marriage was on the rocks
and that, you know, Mrs. Roper was thinking about divorce.
* *
- She was not sure how Marvin would handle the news
that she was going to be filing for divorce.
All of that came into play
when we were still looking for Marvin,
'cause that just added
to the fuel of that Marvin may have been involved in it.
narrator: But there's another stunning turn.
- The diary actually revealed
that she was in a relationship
with a gentleman named Michael Fox.
Michael Fox was no stranger to law enforcement.
He had had some run-ins with the law himself.
- I was familiar with the name of Michael Fox
from other units that I had been working with
prior to this investigation.
- He was known to me. He was known to the officers.
He certainly became a person of interest
that we had to find out whether or not he had any involvement.
- When it was revealed that he, in fact, was having
a relationship with Donna Roper,
it caught many people by surprise,
because Michael Fox was a convicted felon.
narrator: Now that detectives know
the troubled state of Donna's marriage,
they must look at both her husband and her boyfriend
as potential suspects.
- Police had to work the two theories.
One was that Marvin attacked her
and was on the run.
The second was Michael Fox,
because he was certainly capable
of putting something like this together.
* *
- Law enforcement continued scouring the property
because it was so massive.
They go into one of the structures--the barn.
- We walked through the building,
and when we smelled the odor, we started moving towards it
in the back of the barn.
- And with these things being found in the barn...
this opened up the investigation
in a whole new manner.
* *
narrator: After being viciously attacked
inside her country estate just outside Atlanta,
52-year-old Donna Roper
is in critical condition, fighting for her life,
while her husband, Marvin, is nowhere to be found.
- In searching Donna's house,
detectives uncover her personal diary
and a possible suspect--
her secret lover,
a convicted felon with a lengthy rap sheet.
- Michael Fox was well known to the police department.
He was a thief and a burglar
that we had arrested a number of times.
- Once the affair was revealed with Michael Fox,
of course, he became a person of interest.
It became a priority to find out where he was.
narrator: Detectives try to track down Fox,
searching several of his old hangouts
and quickly discover he's in Lawrenceville,
sitting behind bars
at the county jail for robbery.
They question Fox
as to his relationship with Donna.
Fox tells detectives he's been in jail for weeks,
providing an airtight alibi
for the hours of the attack and robbery.
- Okay.
- At the Gwinnett County Jail,
all outgoing calls by inmates are recorded,
and there were recordings of Donna and Michael talking.
Michael Fox was in the Gwinnett County Jail
and had been and was still in jail
on the day that Donna Roper was assaulted.
- So, at this point, law enforcement--
they feel pretty confident
about eliminating Michael Fox as the attacker.
narrator: While jail records prove that Michael Fox
couldn't have attacked Donna,
investigators press him for more information
about his relationship with her.
Investigators tell Fox about Donna's attack.
With Fox offering up no new leads,
detectives head over to the hospital
to check in on Donna.
- When we got there, they were still treating her.
She was on life support,
so we weren't able to interview her.
narrator: But doctors do provide detectives
with one key piece of information.
- They thought she was shot
because there was so much blood,
but later they find out
that she had, in fact, been bludgeoned
with some sort of item.
- We were finally told by the surgeon
that it was his belief that Miss Roper had been struck
in the head with a claw hammer
that had a straight claw on it--
I think it was seven times
with the claw end of the hammer,
and two or three of those had penetrated
at least two inches into the brain.
- My thought process was--
due to the savage nature of the attack
that it was very personal.
[dramatic music]
[siren wails]
narrator: Only hours
after detectives discovered Donna,
she continues to fight for her life.
The team's top priority
is tracking down her husband, Marvin Roper
and finding the hammer used in this brutal assault.
- Nobody has heard from Marvin Roper,
and nobody had any idea where he was.
- The group of detectives was divided up into teams
by the lead detective.
So some of the detectives went back to the headquarters
and started to look into the background of Marvin Roper,
but we also expanded
the search of the property.
- When we were going through the house,
searching the house, we didn't find a hammer.
We assumed that the hammer went with the suspect
when they left the area.
- Law enforcement continued scouring the property
because it was so massive,
and they go into one of the structures--the barn.
And when they first go into the barn,
nothing seems odd.
It was actually empty.
But then they found a door
to what appeared to be, like, a tool shed.
[indistinct chatter over police radio]
narrator: When the team enters the shed,
they are confronted with an overpowering smell.
- We walked through the building.
And when we smelled the odor, we started moving towards it
in the back of the barn.
And then when we got to the little workshop,
we looked in the door...
and Marvin Roper was on the floor.
* *
narrator: Investigators check for any signs of life
but find none.
Marvin Roper has been brutally bludgeoned to death.
- Once law enforcement
realizes that this is Marvin Roper
who is deceased in the barn,
obviously, they then believe
that he was not the attacker of Donna Roper.
So now law enforcement is dealing with a homicide case
and a case of aggravated battery.
And they don't have a clue as to who did it.
* *
narrator: Gwinnett County detectives are investigating
the brutal attack of Donna and Marvin Roper--
both bludgeoned on their country estate
just outside Atlanta.
Donna survived the attack,
but police have just found Marvin's deceased body
in their barn.
- He had been beaten in the head.
I mean, part of his head was caved in.
The murder weapon from Marvin's case
was found right there beside him.
It was a leaf spring from either a truck or a tractor,
and it was covered in blood,
so we knew that's what had been used to beat him to death.
[dramatic music]
- After Marvin is found in the barn,
the medical examiner comes in
and completes a rough exam of the body.
Based upon our findings,
we believe that Mr. Roper and Miss Roper
had both been assaulted in the same general time frame,
but we don't have any idea
who may have done this to 'em.
narrator: When the ME searches Marvin's body,
he finds something unexpected.
- The medical examiner
had found a small quantity of methamphetamine
in Marvin's pants pocket.
* *
narrator: As the team searches the barn,
the bag of meth isn't the only evidence
of drug use.
- We discovered baggies,
all of the equipment that you would use in a drug business.
- Now that law enforcement finds the meth in his pants,
finds the paraphernalia in his home,
it now appears that Marvin is somehow involved
in this drug game.
- For all intents and purposes and all outside appearances,
he was a guy who had made a bunch of money selling land
and was leisurely living out his life
as a gentleman farmer, not dealing drugs.
narrator: Detectives are stunned.
What started off as a possible domestic-violence case
may be tied to Atlanta's growing drug scene.
- As I remember, it was marijuana and methamphetamine
and cocaine were his drugs of choice.
- With these things being found in the barn
and some of the drugs being found on Marvin,
this opened up the investigation
in a whole new manner.
Now this could be a drug deal gone bad.
* *
narrator: A few hours after police find Marvin's body,
news of the grisly murder
in the quiet hamlet of Lawrenceville
hit the airwaves
and stunned the entire Atlanta area.
- On Monday, police found Marvin Roper beaten to death
with a blunt object.
They found his body in a barn
on his property near Lawrenceville.
- I talked to neighbors at the scene,
and they were very shaken up.
This was a place where you probably felt
like you were immune from any sort of violence or crime.
- Marvin seemed like a nice guy.
We were just all kind of, like,
in disbelief that something like this happened
and to somebody that you knew...
and right there in your face.
My safety blanket was gone.
We had moved out here for safety
and, you know, to get a sense of peace,
and in one afternoon that had been destroyed.
* *
- Neighbors were absolutely shocked.
Marvin Roper was the last person
that they thought was involved
in any way in drugs.
narrator: With a panicked community
and evidence of a drug trade,
detectives reach out to their drug informants
for any leads on local organized crime.
They discover there's a man who lives nearby
whose criminal history piques their interest.
- I had an informant that provided me
with the name of an individual--Everett Roland.
He had been in and out of trouble most of his life
with different crimes
but also involving a lot of drug activity.
I went to Everett's house,
conducted an interview with him.
He then started telling us
that he had been friends with Marvin
for years and years.
narrator: Detectives ask Roland what he knows
about Marvin Roper.
- Roland confirmed for law enforcement
that Mr. Roper was, in fact, involved in the drug scene.
- Marvin--he was selling cocaine and marijuana.
He had a network of distributors,
and then they sold to the street dealers.
narrator: While speaking with investigators,
Roland offers a theory
as to what may be behind his friend Marvin's murder.
- Marvin had received information
to go to an unknown motel in the Atlanta area,
where he went.
He met with another person
that asked him to store these two green suitcases,
which contained 140 pounds of marijuana, in his barn.
narrator: But Roland says Marvin had other ideas
about what to do with the stash.
- And according to this individual,
Marvin later sold 40 pounds of that marijuana
to an unknown person
and pocketed the money out of it.
And then someone broke into the barn
and stole the remaining 100 pounds of marijuana
that was left.
narrator: Detectives press Roland
for their dealer's name,
but he has no idea.
- And now we're wondering, is this a retaliation
for the marijuana that Marvin had but no longer had?
Because some he sold and some was stolen, supposedly.
narrator: With this new information
of Marvin's involvement in the drug business,
detectives check in on Donna to see what she knows
and to break the news that her husband has died.
- She was in a coma at the time,
and we were unable to talk to her
to see if she could provide any information
on who might have done this.
- My heart just broke for her.
They got her on the operating table,
and during that time, she had a stroke,
which paralyzed her left side.
She couldn't use her arm at all.
It's just horrible
for a person's life to be taken from 'em.
narrator: Detectives reach out to their narcotics unit
to get a better read
on the Gwinnett County drug scene.
The unit confirms that Marvin Roper
has been on their radar for quite a while.
- Marvin Roper had sold drugs to an undercover officer
six months before the actual murder.
The narcotics unit was working,
trying to build a bigger case
to find out who his suppliers were
and work our way up the ladder.
So he hadn't been arrested on that yet.
narrator: Based on the size of the stash
that Marvin supposedly got from the motel,
investigators now have to wonder,
how deep was he in the drug scene?
- Even though a lot of people knew Marvin
as this guy who owned gas stations
and now was living on a farm raising chickens,
once law enforcement realized
that he is somehow involved in this drug game,
they start to wonder just how involved was he.
Was he involved with the cartel?
Had he gotten in over his head?
They didn't know.
narrator: Detectives in Lawrenceville, Georgia,
have discovered that Marvin Roper,
a seemingly humble chicken farmer,
was deep into the Atlanta drug scene.
The team now needs to check out
whether Marvin's brutal murder
and the attempted murder of his wife, Donna,
may have been the result
of Marvin getting in over his head.
[dramatic music]
- It became apparent
that Marvin may be involved
with a group or organization
that's a lot larger than something
that he's used to dealing with.
We're looking at more
of an organized narcotics outfit.
narrator: Investigators zero in on the Texas Mafia--
an organization known to use ruthless tactics
to keep dealers in line.
- These people would be somebody
that's far more powerful and far more dangerous
than anybody that Marvin has probably dealt with.
If a cartel is involved in it, that's where our relationship
with our narcotics unit comes into play,
because not only do the narcotics people
have their contacts on the streets,
but they also have contacts with other agencies
in Metro Atlanta that deal in drugs.
narrator: But to the team's disappointment,
none of the drug unit's street contacts pan out.
While it's possible
the Texas Mafia might have punished Marvin
by killing him and assaulting his wife, Donna,
nobody is willing to talk.
- The drug angle was sort of degenerating.
It was getting to the point
where there were really no new leads to follow up on.
* *
narrator: The narcotics world fails to yield any leads,
but two days into the investigation,
detectives get a call from DeKalb County Police
that blows the case wide open.
- As they were doing their investigation,
Gwinnett Police learned that a person was arrested
in DeKalb trying to cash Mr. Roper's checks
at a SunTrust Bank in Decatur--
Tammy Gemes.
narrator: Investigators immediately head out
to question Tammy Gemes,
who has already been in custody for four hours.
- And for the first time, police had a name
of a prime suspect-- Walter Thompson.
- So that became the hot lead.
That's the person we had to find.
narrator: According to Tammy,
Thompson gave her Marvin's checks
and offered to sell her electronics and jewelry,
but she denies any involvement
in the Roper murder and attack.
Despite Tammy's denial, she remains a person of interest
and is charged with forgery and passing stolen checks.
- So, of course, the first thing that you do
is you run a criminal history on Walter Thompson.
And what we discovered was,
is that he is basically a career criminal--
mostly theft and drug offenses.
The next thing we had to do is find out
if there was any connection
between the Ropers and Thompson.
And what the investigators learned
from a variety of sources
was that Thompson knew Marvin Roper...
and had done handyman work around the farm.
narrator: The team puts out word
they are searching for Walter Thompson,
and they soon uncover a surprising lead.
- The person they were looking for, Walter Thompson,
had been arrested by Atlanta Police
in Mrs. Roper's white Mercedes...
* *
A day after the attack.
* *
- He was arrested--
I think it's just on some traffic charges
or maybe driver's license charges,
misdemeanor charges.
narrator: As detectives begin the process
of transferring Thompson to Gwinnett County,
they get some alarming news.
- He gave them some story about why he had the car,
that he borrowed it.
* *
They let him go, and he left in the car.
* *
narrator: Investigators learned that Thompson
was arrested for a minor traffic offense
shortly after Donna and Marvin were attacked.
The police weren't called to the Roper home
until two days later,
so they hadn't yet been alerted
to be on the lookout for the stolen car.
- Police had not connected the dots
that the car that he was driving in
was a part of this crime scene.
- All of a sudden, you go from flying high
to slumping down in your chair and saying,
oh, man.
But you pick yourself back up,
and you go right back out there,
because you're gonna have to find him.
- I think, at that point, the feeling
among the investigators and the prosecutors was,
is that there's clearly a link between him and the homicide.
He had to be involved.
And so we stepped up looking for him.
I mean, all of a sudden, this case is hot again.
We're actively pursuing Walter Thompson.
You got to believe he's your doer.
I mean, he's your guy.
* *
He said the plan was for him and another person
to go up and rob the house.
- He's trying to blame it on somebody
that was not even there.
- I think he wielded the hammer,
because he's the one
that Donna would have opened the door for.
narrator: Atlanta-area authorities are in hot pursuit
of Walter Thompson--
the man they believe murdered Marvin Roper
and critically injured his wife, Donna.
- Here we've got a concrete link
between Walter Thompson
and the vehicle that Donna drove.
That was her personal car.
And he's in it, driving it.
- We had also put out a BOLO,
which is "be on the lookout for."
The truck, which belonged to Marvin,
is a full-size Chevrolet pickup truck.
One of the Atlanta units located the pickup truck
that Walter had been trying to sell.
We went to an address
that was near where the truck was parked.
- They were able to talk
to some people who lived in the neighborhood
who said that Walter Thompson stayed at that address.
I don't know that they actually confirmed
that he got mail there or anything, but he slept there.
And so we thought that was the best chance we had
of swooping him up that night.
- We get with Atlanta Police Department.
We get with Metro Fugitive Task Force.
- Gwinnett County Police Department saddled up.
The Gwinnett County Sheriff's Department was down there.
The dogs were out. The helicopter was up.
It was a full-blown operation.
- Police really wanted to make this arrest
and capture Mr. Thompson,
because anybody who would do this to the Ropers--
an attack so violent-- was a immediate danger
to everybody else in Atlanta,
and they needed to get him in custody quickly.
- We were out most of the night,
into the early-morning hours.
[indistinct chatter over police radio]
- And then the call came in that they had spotted
Walter Thompson up the street from where we were at
and that they were involved in a foot chase with him.
[dramatic music]
- After an all-night search and some chasing,
police finally caught up with 37-year-old Walter Thompson--
wanted in the Gwinnett murder case.
narrator: Three days after police were called
to the Ropers' residence,
Walter Thompson is arrested.
With Donna still in a coma and Marvin deceased,
detectives are looking for answers.
- Once Walter Thompson is in custody,
police ask him immediately
what he knew about the attack on Donna
and the murder of Marvin.
- Well...
- [clears throat]
- Walter Thompson-- he confirms for police
that he was involved in stealing the property,
but he says he in no way had anything to do
with the attack on Donna or the murder of Marvin.
- So he said plan was for him and another person
to go up and rob the house,
steal items and drugs and anything else valuable.
We always asked him, who else was involved?
And he named several other people.
He was naming people almost at random
as being his co-defendants.
narrator: Thompson tells investigators
it's Sean who is the real killer.
- It becomes obvious that Walter Thompson
is downplaying his role in the crimes that occurred
at the Roper residence.
But we had to look into his statements.
narrator: So they run a background check
on this new alleged accomplice.
- He was placing the blame on Sean.
Sean was another drug user.
- So now police-- they try to get the details
on where this Sean person was,
and when they start searching the system,
they find out that he couldn't have been involved either
because he was in jail
at the time of the attack and the murder.
- It tells law enforcement that he's lying
to cover up what happened.
narrator: The team checks nearby pawn shops
for the Roper's stolen items,
and they quickly find several pieces of jewelry
that reveal some more damning evidence.
- By that time, we had identified
a lot of the property that had been stolen,
and it was done through relatives and Donna's family.
And there were some really distinctive pieces of jewelry.
And all of a sudden,
they start showing up in pawn shops down in Atlanta.
- And in Gwinnett County, when someone pawns something,
you have to have your photograph taken,
and you have to leave a fingerprint.
So we had a picture of Mr. Thompson.
We had a card with his name and his fingerprint on it
as being the person that's pawning this jewelry
on the day that we suspected
that Marvin had been murdered.
narrator: After reviewing all the evidence,
detectives are confident they know how the crime went down.
* *
- The way I reconstructed it is that Thompson
knew Marvin Roper,
and he knew about Roper's drug connection.
He either knew there were drugs in the barn,
and he went out there to get those first--
the drugs and the cash--
and he ambushed Marvin Roper and killed him.
* *
Or he went to the house first,
attacked Donna...
and then went out to the barn
to look for more drugs and money,
and that's where he found Marvin,
and he killed him there.
And I think that Walter Thompson
is probably the person who wielded the hammer,
because he's the one
that Donna would have opened the door for.
narrator: Walter Thompson is charged with armed robbery,
aggravated battery, and felony murder.
If convicted, he could face the death penalty.
Two months in,
as prosecutors prepare for trial,
they get some unexpected news.
Donna Roper is on the mend and is finally able to speak.
- After Donna got out of the hospital,
she went through rehab,
and it became a priority to interview Donna Roper.
* *
narrator: In October of 1998,
detectives arrest and charge Walter Thompson
for the brutal murder of Marvin Roper
and the vicious attack of his wife, Donna,
on their sprawling estate just outside of Atlanta.
- This case has taken more twists and turns,
I think, than any case I've ever been involved in
in the 17 years I've been doing this.
narrator: With Donna able to sit down for an interview,
investigators are hopeful she can ID her attacker.
- Of course, everybody was really excited
that Donna was doing so well and doing well enough to speak.
- One of the things we had to think about is,
are we gonna put Donna on the stand?
Is she gonna be a witness?
And, of course, the first thing we have to find out--
is she capable of being a witness?
[dramatic music]
- Donna Roper was recovering from her injuries.
She was asked if she had any recollection
of what had happened on the day that she was attacked.
- She knew that Marvin was dead.
The one thing you got to remember is,
because of her injuries, she's not very emotional.
The brain damage she had suffered was so bad
that she didn't have any insight to give us
on how it happened or who was there or anything else.
We decided there was no way--
I mean, there was no way we could put her on the stand.
narrator: Thompson maintains his innocence
and pleads not guilty
to the charges of armed robbery,
felony murder, and aggravated battery.
But even without Donna's testimony,
prosecutors are confident they can make their case stick.
- Based on forensic evidence from the jewelry,
I felt confident that we had a strong case
to prosecute him,
connect him to the murders, and convict him.
narrator: Even beyond any material evidence,
prosecutors have another ace up their sleeve.
- The people in his neighborhood just came out
and were freely giving information on Mr. Thompson
and what he had bragged to them about.
As far as the murder, we had witnesses that gave statements
to the fact that Mr. Thompson had told them
that he had killed a couple in Lawrenceville.
narrator: But with the additional momentum
of new testimony
and trial fast approaching, the prosecution hits a snag.
- There were a few problem witnesses
that were not really anxious to come to Gwinnett County.
narrator: None of the witnesses
Thompson allegedly confessed to
will testify against him in trial.
* *
Despite the setback,
prosecutors push forward with the case.
- I was confident that his statements
were gonna be admissible in front of the jury.
So I felt like we had a really powerful case
that we could present to the jury.
narrator: With the death penalty on the table,
Walter Thompson has second thoughts
about maintaining his innocence.
- When the defense attorneys came to me
and we did the balance and debit sheet of it,
it seemed like,
to spare Donna the trial and spare her family
and to get the case disposed of
and Walter Thompson into the prison system,
the best way to do it was with a plea.
And so he pled guilty
and received life sentences.
* *
- Once the Roper case was finally solved,
Lawrenceville was never the same.
It had lost its innocence
because of the attack on Donna Roper
and the murder of Marvin Roper.
* *
- Their lives were destroyed in one afternoon
because of the greed of someone else.
Marvin-- he was just a nice guy.
It really, really made us angry
that this happened.
- Donna was 50 years old when this happened.
She had everything that she thought she wanted right then.
They took it all away from her.
She's a good soul. She's a good person.
* *
She had a life.
She was important.
* *