Family disputes cause of death in Sgt. Robert West case

[Music] an army sergeant is found dead my friend just committed suicide but this soldier's family is crying foul they believe the caller knows way more than he's saying he was the last person to see him and he was the person who found him what happened to sergeant robbie west there were some things that could give you the impression that this was a staged scene for those closest to the fallen soldier it's anything but case closed no someone may have literally gotten away with murder growing up robbie west wasn't lacking in heart or height dan tell me about robbie he was amazing kind generous i used to call him my gentle giant he was almost six six and he just he had a heart of gold a sweet team but a directionless one that is until an exciting career opportunity presents itself his oldest brother was in the military and i said hey you know this is an amazing place to be i want i want you to think about joining and he did and that was all she wrote he found his way so this was his calling yes absolutely perfect wording robby enlists in the army and it's there in addition to finding his purpose and passion he finds love with another soldier how did you and robbie meet i remember walking into um the classroom and there was robbie in the last row and i saw him i was like oh i'm gonna go sit over there i ended up like touching his hand he was just joking and we'd banter back and forth sounds like you were hitting on him from day one yes this little flirtatious rodney and teresa are soon more than just fellow gis they become husband and wife and in addition to teresa's three children from a previous relationship they become parents to a son of their own how was robbie as a father he was a great dad very dedicated my kids were very lucky they didn't know what it a dad was until he came into their life but that wonderful life will be challenged robbie who is stationed at fort benning in georgia gets deployed to iraq and when his tour ends a year later he returns to the family of six struggling financially struggling we brought in 500 for two weeks pay i was like there's no family that can live off of that so teresa moves to michigan we separated because that's what our family needed to do to stay together a family divided then a gift that could help bring them back together robbie gets his fourth year enlistment bonus seven thousand dollars a huge relief to the overstrapped family he paid even his rent up and ahead he had still money left over to get what he called a toy that toy is a gun but robbie doesn't have the proper military paperwork he needs to purchase it so his friend neighbor and fellow soldier kenneth zubik offers to buy it for him his sergeant friend said well i'll buy it and give it you know you can pay pay me for it monday so robbie and zubik who live in phoenix city alabama go across state lines to georgia to purchase the glock 40 caliber pistol then back for a night out on the town to celebrate robbie's bonus do you remember the last time you spoke to him i spoke to him at approximately 4 30 in the afternoon on that saturday and actually got a text message from him that he said things are great exclamation exclamation and getting ready to go out he was happy so nothing seemed to miss no he was so happy the men take a cab to a few bars then close out the epic night of drinking at a strip club around 2 30 a.m back at home they go to their respective apartments this will be the last time anyone sees or hears from robbie west when did you realize something was wrong god text him in the morning pretty early i tried calling him nothing son called deanne asked if she's heard from him and she said no so of course i tried him two or three times and he didn't respond and then i texted it texted him two or three times still didn't respond teresa calls the army asking them to do a welfare check then she calls the phoenix city police and while she's waiting to hear back i keep calling his phone and calling it calling it calling it and then i started getting mad at him then around 2 30 p.m someone else calls 9-1-1 my friend just committed suicide you know for sure that he committed he or she committed suicide yes ma'am i have accused his department he has a key to my apartment um i just went over to check on him and he's sitting in the chair and he's cold when i take the small sign and there is no heartbeat what's your name my name is ken zubik ich when cops arrive they find 25 year old robbie west dead from a single gunshot wound to the head detectives find a gun in his right hand and some bullets in his lap the magazine is on the table next to him and there is a defect in the ceiling above robbie's chair later at the medical examiner's office robbie's hands will test positive for gunshot residue and his blood alcohol three times the legal limit it is ruled a suicide almost 15 hours after teresa first tried calling her husband a little after midnight and i hear two car doors shut here comes two soldiers and me and my aunt we walk out to the front porch and i still to this day hate the sound of people stepping on gravel it's one sound that you could just hear my heart was racing so hard i felt like i couldn't breathe and i remember him saying miss wes we are sorry to notify you but your your husband died of a single gunshot wound to the head my whole body just went weak and i was like how who killed him who killed him was robbie depressed at all any talk of taking his own life where was he at that point emotionally mentally first he wouldn't do that to the kids he wouldn't dishonor himself he would never do it ever despite the medical examiner's ruling of suicide phoenix city alabama pd is following protocol they're treating robbie's death like every other shooting as a homicide and that means talking more to 45 year old now clean shaven sergeant kenneth zubik zubik's the neighbor who bought the gun for robbie the day before he was also the last one to see him alive and the one who found him dead corporal susan hayes specifically wants to question zubik about what investigators found on robbie's phone so this little conversation that you had over the over the test here how to get started i was very intoxicated last night man okay don't remember exactly what i said last night okay well i'll refresh your memory it says bring me my gun over or i'll call the police tonight your choice remember that yes ma'am what where did that come from i mean what because he was saying that he wasn't going to pay me for the weapon and then he had he had possession of the gun the volley of texts gets heated he says hi really i'm calling my wife and my mom and my brother right now why are you being such a jealous remember that remember getting this these texts he says well i'm calling my brother and my stepbrother right now and letting them know how scandalous you are and they can check your bank account and know you have no money don't threaten me give me my property back it's not yours okay wow come and get it you know i paid for that gun what's up dude why did you not tell us about this little it didn't even occur to me it didn't occur to you i mean he shot himself in the head with a pistol it didn't occur to you to tell us about this that i purchased a weapon and he was going to buy the weapon for you from you that he had it in his possession and that you guys got to argue okay why why did you not tell me i mean i guess it didn't didn't occur to me man it looks highly suspicious to me the conversation then turns to that morning and finding robbie dead how many times did you text me this morning two or three different this one says it was sent at 12 30 and it says wait the hell up call me dude call me how much after 12 30 did you go and check on it there was no other text after 12 30. i don't believe that not until later on what made you decide to go over what was going to do laundry because he has a washing car behind you not right and i was just going to go get laundry and since you didn't have to use text i had a key so i was just going to paint i got the door he didn't enter open up the door and there he was about what time did you go in you don't remember no i mean this just happened just a little bit ago so i mean your memory should be good oh absolutely the time is kind of important okay and you still can't remember what time you went over 2 30ish 1 30-ish hayes tightens the screws i just don't understand why he decided to leave those details out about having an um my buddy died you know i mean i've seen all that through but it doesn't appeal to me you know that we have to investigate these things as as a homicide and you know it does look fishy when you leave important those are important details i probably shouldn't let you know immediately like holy crap you know caught a gun on saturday my buddy dead i mean i didn't kill him zubik then gets emotional did i just talk luke are you serious life is not that hard dude you just got a huge bonus you're going to pay up your military don't miss your family you know and i'll look at you after the 30-minute interview zubik is allowed to leave over time phoenix city pd continues their investigation of robbie's case the army's criminal investigations division command conducts one two both come back to independently rule robbie's death a suicide case closed or is it when i sat down and looked at the information it raised some serious questions in my mind whether or not it was in fact a suicide the investigation into sergeant robbie west's death is closed officials determining it was a self-inflicted gunshot wound but robbie's wife theresa west says it wasn't you think kenneth zubic killed your husband yes ravi's mother deanne miller agrees so she launches an investigation of her own enlisting the help of attorney thomas worthy what did you discover overall the investigation if you can call it that was just sloppy and that's being kind in my estimation so you got a lot of circumstantial evidence that i think should have been considered and thoroughly investigated that was just kind of ignored circumstantial evidence like the fact they say there were no signs robbie was suicidal he just signed a re-enlistment bonus for seven thousand dollars and that he had paid off all the bills he was looking forward to coming back and being reunited with the family so nothing really appeared to be that he was depressed or had any reason to even think about killing and no suicide note was found and then as i looked into the facts of the case that he and the sergeant across the hallway after they got back to their apartment complex zurbik started texting robbie that he wanted his gun back and then nothing until around 2 30 the next day and zubrick claims that he found robbie with a bullet wound to his head was zubik ever tested for gun residue to my analogy what no no there's something else about zubik that raises worthy's eyebrows he refused to take a polygraph test zubik refused to take a polygraph test yeah and that isn't the only thing worthy and ravi's family find suspicious there were several items missing from robbie's apartment there is 400 dollars missing his vacuum his playstation games and three controllers where was the playstation well zubik had it reportedly zubik said robbie loaned him the playstation he wouldn't even let his own son play on it let alone let somebody borrow it and there was something else missing what's the significance of a pillow missing he never slept with anything less than two pillows because he had a bad neck do you think the pillow could have been used we believe so yes to silence the sound deanne says there's still more something that makes her believe the scene was staged which hand did he prefer to shoot from speaking to his best friend that was in the military with him he said that he shot a pistol with his left hand and why is that significant because the gun was in his right crime watch daily asked forensics expert dr bill smock to take a look at robbie's case and give us his unbiased opinion what do you make of this investigation this was i would say a fairly adequate investigation we have an autopsy that is performed we have crime scene photos that i think are adequate but there were some things that caused me pause when you look at robbie's hands he's actually has bullets in his hands and then the weapon is also in his hand which could give you the impression that this was a staged scene what gave me pause was that he had a heated argument with his neighbor the neighbor was the one who found him it seemed that there were suspicious circumstances in how robbie was found and then items that were missing i would agree that is suspicious what about the missing pillow could it have been used to muffle the sound of the gunshot when we look at the imprint on robbing's right temple there is an imprint of the barrel of the gun if there had been an object in between the barrel and the skin you wouldn't see that imprint dr bill smock demonstrates so what happens as the gas gets injected into the skin assume this is ravi's skin and it pushes back against the barrel what you have when you take the gun away is an imprint of the outline of the barrel you have the horseshoe shape of the frame and an abrasion right where that rod went into the skin and that's what you see on on the photographs you see this which tells us the barrel was against the skin when he was shot for this then to have been a homicide the killer would have had to been almost on the floor but still somehow pressed up against robbie's temple the killer would have had to come in from the right side with robbie and his head over put the gun up like this and there wasn't much space between the right side of the chair and the wall dr smock believes the answer to ravi's death may be found in the gun and on the table next to him this was a brand new gun to robbie and it was a glock and what's interesting about that is the glocks will fire even though the magazine is not in the handle cartridges in the chamber magazine is out this glock will still fire even though the magazine is out so if i were robbie and i've got the gun i'm here i'm drunk i'm sitting here and all of a sudden goes in one side comes out goes up into the ceiling i think that's what happened dr smock believes although robbie was a left-handed shooter he probably shot himself with his right hand and is that unusual it's not a hundred percent certainly the majority but it's not again not 100 which brings him to conclude probably an accidental robbie was very intoxicated his alcohol level was almost three times the legal limit when i look at the physical evidence i tend to think this was an accidental self-inflicted one an accidental death a tragic determination in an attempt to get the family some answers crimewatch daily reached out to the russell county district attorney's office they came back with a bombshell of a comment they told us the case of christopher r west was first presented to the russell county grand jury that grand jury did not return an indictment in this case so basically your son's death was brought to a grand jury did you know that no nobody told us that what do you make of that makes me angry angry angry that nobody nobody told us anything like this now we don't know who they wanted to indict this just seems very bizarre it is extremely bizarre looking for further clarification crimewatch daily reached out to the phoenix city police department they declined our request for an interview but responded in part with multiple agencies were involved in this death investigation there has never been any evidence or statements obtained that would support this case being anything other than a suicide i would urge anyone with knowledge of this case that they have not shared with law enforcement to contact this agency so that it can be further investigated crimewatch daily also reached out to kenneth zubik by phone and email we never heard back and the family's thoughts on robbie's death being an accident they don't think so what's the goal the end game for you we want to find out the truth what really happened to robbie west i believe there's enough evidence there to reopen the case what do you miss most about robbie i miss hearing his voice i miss his text messages i miss seeing his face i am saddened by seeing his children crying and in pain from the loss unnecessary loss [Music] i feel very angry and sad that my kids you know don't have him you know it's really hard when you see your kids hurting so bad and you can't take that pain away

Channel: True Crime Daily

Views: 821,155

Keywords:

Id: OckDuEkzksA

Length: 21min 8sec (1268 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 04 2021