Grace Elinor Robotti is led out of Penticton courthouse after a brief appearance in 2015.
(STEVE ARSTAD / iNFOnews.ca)
March 22, 2017 - 12:22 PM
KELOWNA – Accused murderer Grace Robotti and her brother Pier were arrested in the lobby of the Penticton RCMP shortly after police met with two people who claimed to have information about Roxanne Louie’s disappearance.
During opening submissions crown lawyer John Swanson said Grace and Pier Robotti turned themselves in on Jan. 11, one week after Grace killed her with 26 blows to the head with a metal pry bar during a fight.
Grace Robotti, 65, admits she killed her grandson’s ex-girlfriend in Robotti’s Penticton mobile home around 2 a.m. Jan. 4, 2015. She says it was unintentional and has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder. She has pleaded guilty to interfering with a body.
During the second day of trial in Kelowna Supreme Court, Swanson clarified that the Jan. 11 arrest followed an interview with a couple who arrived at the Penticton RCMP detachment around noon that day.
Lead investigator Const. Andrew Kelly Grant said at that time he was advised that two people were at the front counter “with information about the Louie disappearance.”
Grace and Pier were also in the waiting room at that time.
Grant took a statement from the couple and, according to Swanson, “formed the opinion that Louie was dead and had been killed.”
Immediately afterwards Grace and Pier were arrested in the lobby and the investigation changed from a missing person case to a homicide.
Pier Robotti then took police to the wooded area near Naramata where he had dumped the body shortly after she was killed.
The trial is scheduled for roughly one month after which time the results of Pier Robotti's trial will be made public.
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