NORRISTOWN – Montgomery County jurors appeared attentive as the 30-year-old testimony of a man who claimed to witness the 1980 fatal shooting of a woman in Norristown was re-read to them at the accused killer’s retrial that was ordered by a federal judge.
Richard Mayo, according to his 1991 testimony, claimed he was the front seat passenger in a vehicle operated by Collegeville native Linda Rowden when Robert Fisher, who was Rowden’s ex-boyfriend and was seated behind Rowden, brandished a handgun from his waistband and fatally shot Rowden during an argument as she drove her car along DeKalb Street in Norristown on July 10, 1980.
“He pulled out a pistol … and shot her in the neck. Then she bent over and he shot her in the side,” Mayo claimed, according to a transcript of his 1991 testimony. “It looked like a long barrel pistol. It was a revolver. It was dark in color.”
Fisher, now 75, and formerly of the 600 block of DeKalb Street, showed no emotion as Mayo’s testimony was re-read to the jury.
During the painstaking procedure, county First Assistant District Attorney Edward F. McCann Jr. recited the questions that were asked of Mayo, who is now deceased, at the 1991 court proceeding and Assistant District Attorney Lindsey Mills, seated in the witness box, recited Mayo’s responses for the jury.
During the retrial, McCann and co-prosecutor Tanner Beck alleged Fisher committed first-degree murder, which is an intentional killing, when he fatally shot Rowden, who was 26.
Prosecutors alleged an angry Fisher killed Rowden to prevent her from giving information to police that could link Fisher to the 1980 murder of Nigel Anderson, a witness who had been scheduled to testify in a federal heroin case.
According to Mayo’s 1991 testimony, he recalled Anderson’s name being mentioned during the argument between Fisher and Rowden during the car ride.
However, relying on other testimony and statements that Mayo gave to authorities in the 1980s, defense lawyer Carrie L. Allman, the chief homicide lawyer for the public defender’s office, suggested Mayo provided inconsistent information and that anything he said cannot be trusted.
In one statement, Mayo provided a false name to police and claimed Fisher and Rowden argued about Fisher being accused of stealing a license plate or a warrant for his arrest.
In other previous testimony, Mayo indicated he didn’t clearly see the gun that Fisher allegedly brandished.
During the retrial, Allman has argued Fisher did not kill Rowden and suggested it was Mayo who could have shot Rowden.
Given that decades have passed since Rowden’s death, several witnesses and some of the original investigators have since died and prosecutors are having their testimony re-read to jurors seated for Fisher’s retrial.
In addition to Mayo’s testimony, jurors heard the prior testimony of a woman who claimed to observe Fisher get out of the back seat of Rowden’s car and run from the scene after the car crashed near DeKalb and Basin streets following the shooting.
The testimony of the late Dr. Halbert E. Fillinger Jr., a forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy on Rowden, also was read to the jury. Fillinger, a former county coroner, testified in 1991 that Rowden suffered two gunshot wounds that caused “massive internal bleeding.”
Jurors also heard the 1991 testimony of former Norristown Detective Jack Salamone who testified that on July 8, 1980, Rowden reported to authorities that Fisher had assaulted her and Salamone had advised Fisher to say away from Rowden.
“Bobby told me that he would stay away from her,” Salamone testified in 1991.
Jurors are also expected to hear the prior testimony of Fisher’s girlfriend at the time to who prosecutors alleged Fisher confessed.
Testimony at Fisher’s retrial before Judge Todd D. Eisenberg could wrap up on Wednesday.
The jury is not aware that Fisher previously was tried and convicted twice for the crime and is the only person in Pennsylvania to be sentenced to death three times.
The latest twist in the 41-year-old case occurred in late 2019 when a federal judge overturned Fisher’s 1991 first-degree murder conviction and 1997 death sentence in connection with Rowden’s death.
U.S. District Court Judge Gene E.K. Pratter overturned Fisher’s conviction, ruling a county judge’s instruction on “reasonable doubt” and an example of the concept the judge recited during a 1991 trial was “constitutionally deficient” and “fatally flawed” and that Fisher’s lawyer should have objected to the instruction.
Pratter wrote, “given the blatant problems with this instruction, Mr. Fisher’s counsel was ineffective for failing to object and there is a reasonable probability of a different outcome in Mr. Fisher’s guilty phase trial.” Pratter concluded Fisher’s constitutional rights were violated by the instruction.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld Pratter’s decision on Jan. 17, 2020, sending Fisher’s case back to county court for a retrial.
Fisher’s 1997 death sentence also was overturned with Pratter ruling the aggravating factor relied on by prosecutors at the time was improperly applied.
Fisher’s conviction and death sentence previously were upheld by the state Supreme Court and Fisher’s appeals on the grounds his lawyers were ineffective also previously were denied by state courts.
Fisher, who has categorically denied any involvement in Rowden’s murder, wasn’t apprehended until the fall of 1987 in New York City.
Fisher was first convicted of Rowden’s murder in September 1988 and was sentenced to death. To win that conviction, prosecutors relied on Fisher’s previous conviction in federal court of violating Nigel Anderson’s civil rights.
In 1990, the state Supreme Court overturned the county murder conviction after a federal judge overturned Fisher’s federal civil rights conviction.
Fisher was then retried for Rowden’s murder in August 1991, convicted and sentenced to death a second time.
However, in June 1996, the state Supreme Court, while upholding the murder conviction, ruled Fisher should receive a new penalty hearing because jurors at his 1991 trial were improperly allowed to hear victim impact testimony from Rowden’s mother.
After a new penalty hearing in June 1997, Fisher was sentenced to death a third time.
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