NEWPORT, N.H. — The lawyer for a man charged with killing his estranged wife on the day she filed for divorce told jurors Monday his client is an innocent man who lost all sense of normalcy the day she disappeared.
Prosecutors maintain there is overwhelming evidence – from cellphone records to his blood-stained clothing – that James Robarge confronted 42-year-old Kelly Robarge at the Charlestown, New Hampshire, home they once shared after she returned home from filing the divorce petition.
The Sullivan County Superior Court jury, seven women and five men, went home Monday afternoon without reaching a verdict after about two hours of deliberations. They’re set to return to court Tuesday. Robarge is charged with first- and second-degree murder.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Susan Morrell said blood spatters throughout the Charlestown home show Kelly Robarge was beaten multiple times with fists or a blunt object.
She stressed that cellphone records place Robarge, 45, at his wife’s home from 11:04 a.m. on June 27, 2013 – contrary to his testimony – and that Kelly Robarge’s last text message to a friend at 11:19 a.m. conveyed that James Robarge was at the house and she was going to tell him about the divorce filing.
“Listen to Kelly Robarge,” Morrell told jurors. “Her blood and her text messages are pointing to her murderer.”
Morrell urged them to convict him of first-degree murder, which carries a sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole. Second-degree murder carries up to a life sentence, but the judge is free to choose any range.
Morrell cited medical examiner testimony that a scratch on James Robarge’s left index finger was consistent with someone trying to pry hands off their neck when they’re being strangled.
Kelly Robarge’s badly decomposed and animal-ravaged body was found July 6 off a remote logging trail in Unity. Morrell said oil pan fragments from James Robarge’s car – which broke down less than 2 miles away – were found on the trail leading to Kelly’s body.
Robarge’s lawyer, Caroline Smith, told jurors they must acquit Robarge because there is no evidence to show how, where or when Kelly Robarge died or who killed her.
“James Robarge is an innocent man and he did not kill Kelly,” Smith argued. “Speculation is not proof and it does not resolve doubt.”
Smith noted the DNA of an unidentified man being found near bloodstains at the Charlestown home. Morrell countered that DNA evidence lingers and that male friends of the Robarges had been at the home and even lived at the home.
Robarge testified that wounds seen and photographed by police on the day his wife disappeared came from breaking up a fight between two of their five German shepherds that day. Morrell reminded jurors of testimony that those five dogs were very protective and would not allow a stranger to enter.
Throughout the final arguments, Robarge stared straight ahead, looking at neither the lawyers nor the jurors.
Robarge has been in custody since his arrest after his wife’s body was found. The trial began Jan. 14, with jurors touring the Charlestown house and viewing the trailhead of the logging road where Kelly Robarge’s body was found, in an area where hunters were known to bait coyotes.
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