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Woman cleared in slaying of adopted daughter

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Woman cleared in slaying of adopted daughter

Saturday, June 08, 2002
By The Associated Press

A woman who withdrew from a plea deal on third-degree murder charges last year was acquitted on all charges in the murder and burning of her mentally retarded, adopted daughter.

Roberta Gillin, 50, of Masontown, Fayette County, withdrew a guilty plea on March 27, 2001, the day she was to be sentenced.

"We're disappointed in the verdict, but we knew from the beginning that the case had its difficulties," Fayette County District Attorney Nancy Vernon said Thursday after the verdict was delivered.

A Fayette County judge last year rejected an earlier plea deal in which Gillin would have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit homicide and conspiracy to abuse a corpse in exchange for testimony against her husband in the slaying.

James Gillin was sentenced to life in prison, plus 14 years in 2001 for first-degree murder. Judge Conrad Capuzzi refused to accept Roberta Gillin's plea after hearing gruesome testimony during her husband's trial.

Helen Gillin, 25, the couple's adopted daughter, was stomped to death and her body was burned in a backyard fire pit in 1992, police said.

James and Roberta Gillin told friends that she had run off with a boyfriend, police said. They continued to collect her disability checks and told authorities they were saving the money for her in case she returned home.

The Gillins were arrested and charged in 1999 after their biological daughter, Mary Joe Overly, told police that she witnessed the killing when she was 13.

Overly cried on Thursday after her mother was acquitted.

"She has to live with herself," Overly said. "My sister deserves to get her justice and she didn't."

Prosecutors said Roberta Gillin made her adopted daughter drink a mixture of bleach and heart medication after finding out her husband was having sex with Helen.

Helen Gillin vomited the mixture, so James Gillin beat and stomped her to death, authorities said.

Prosecutors said the couple dumped the body into a fire pit in the back yard of their Bear Rocks home, about 50 miles south of Pittsburgh. The body was then doused with gasoline and set on fire, prosecutors said.

But Gillin on Thursday denied forcing her daughter to drink the poison mixture, and said she did not report the sexual abuse or the slaying because she was afraid of her husband.

It was the first time Gillin had shown any emotion during the four-day trial, saying she loved Helen.

When Gillin was asked why she did not go to police when she learned her daughter was being abused, she said she was handling the situation through prayer.

Defense attorney Paul Gettleman told jurors that the details Overly gave police were inconsistent.

"She said whatever she had to to send her mother to jail," Gettleman said.

Gettleman acknowledged Gillin used poor judgment, but told jurors that bad judgment is not a crime.

2002 Jun 8