As the trial of a man accused of killing his wife 36 years ago was set to begin Tuesday, a Washington County judge abruptly postponed the proceedings upon learning that a key witness shot himself as authorities tried to take him into custody in Arizona to ensure his testimony in the case.
The startling disclosure prompted Circuit Judge Oscar Garcia to indefinitely delay the trial of Robert Atrops, now 69.
Court delays are routine, but postponing a murder trial moments before it is scheduled to begin is extremely unusual.
The development marks the latest cold case out of Washington County touched by suicide or the death of a key witness late in the investigation.
Last year, the husband of Nancy McEvers killed himself as Washington County cold case investigators closed in on him as a suspect in McEver’s fatal shooting in 1983. And this year, Washington County dropped the charges against a suspect in a 50-year-old double homicide of two high school students, Peter Zito and Donald Bartron, when a key witness who said the suspect had confessed to him died suddenly.
In the current case, Atrops is accused of killing his wife, Deborah Lee Atrops, in 1988. The couple had separated; Robert Atrops lived in Sherwood and his wife was living in a Salem apartment with their young daughter.
On Nov. 29, 1988, Deborah Atrops was scheduled to pick up the child in Sherwood that evening, but her husband told authorities she never showed up.
Deborah Atrops’ body was later found in the trunk of her car, which had been abandoned on a dead-end road in Beaverton. Authorities concluded she had been placed there, fully clothed, after she was killed; an autopsy revealed she had been physically assaulted and strangled to death.
The case eventually went cold, but the Washington County District Attorney’s office reopened it in 2021, eventually zeroing in on Robert Atrops.
Washington County prosecutors planned to argue that Robert Atrops killed his wife out of jealousy and anger over the end of their marriage and her new romantic relationships, including one with a coworker named John Pearson.
Pearson told investigators at the time that Deborah Atrops confided in him that her husband would kill her if he knew of their relationship, according to records filed by the DA’s office.
Defense attorney Stephanie Pollan on Tuesday asked for the trial of her client, Robert Atrops, to be delayed given the suicide of a key witness. “The timing of this needs to be explored, because in the interest of justice for the victim, for Mr. Atrops and for all the parties, this can’t be ignored,” Pollan told the judge.
Mark Graves/The Oregonian
Robert Atrops’ lawyer, Stephanie Pollan, noted in a court filing that Pearson acknowledged a sexual relationship with the victim and said the two had sex within a week of her death.
Pollan raised the possibility of Pearson’s involvement in Atrops’ death, saying Pearson “could not be excluded” from DNA found on a vaginal swab taken from the victim.
On Nov. 29, 2022, the anniversary of Deborah Atrops’ death, Pearson went to a bar and got drunk, then led Crook County sheriff’s deputies on a chase, Pollan wrote.
He was charged with eluding a police officer, unlawful use of a weapon and multiple other charges in that case, court records show. The case was set for trial last year, but Pearson failed to show up, triggering a warrant for his arrest, Pollan wrote.
Washington County authorities, meanwhile, tried to reach Pearson repeatedly in the months leading up to trial, Senior Deputy District Attorney Allison Brown said in court Tuesday.
His family told investigators that he left Oregon this year “to parts unknown,” Brown wrote in court filings.
Brown said the state sought a nationwide material witness warrant “to secure Mr. Pearson’s attendance for trial.” A material witness is someone considered to have evidence important enough to influence the outcome of a trial.
Pollan told the judge that Mohave County Sheriff’s Office deputies went to a trailer park last week to serve the warrant at the request of the Washington County district attorney and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office and that she was told by the state that “based on the service of the warrant, he shot himself.”
“The timing of this needs to be explored, because in the interest of justice for the victim, for Mr. Atrops and for all the parties, this can’t be ignored,” Pollan told the judge.
Brown, the prosecutor, wrote in records filed with the court that police had “very little conversation” with Pearson and the Atrops case wasn’t mentioned.
“There is no evidence that the State is aware that links his suicide to this court case,” Brown wrote. “All evidence indicates he was concerned about being arrested on his own court case in Crook County.”
Pearson’s death is under investigation by the Bullhead City Police Department in Arizona, according to a spokesperson for the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office. He was 72.
A spokesperson for the police department said in an email that the U.S. Marshals Service asked sheriff’s deputies to help execute a warrant in Fort Mohave, Arizona, on Oct. 17.
Emily Fromelt, a spokesperson for the Bullhead City police, said deputies found Pearson’s truck and knocked on his trailer. Fromelt said deputies “told the man inside that he had a warrant for his arrest.” She said the man refused and shot himself.
Brown described Pearson as “fully cooperative” with investigators in the Atrops case and said he was home at the time of the killing, an account his wife corroborated. She said he provided a DNA sample and testified before the grand jury.
She said “all evidence indicates they were in a consensual sexual relationship at the time.”
“There was no evidence Ms. Atrops had plans or any contact with Mr. Pearson that evening,” Brown wrote.
The judge called the development “a very unfortunate situation.”
“In order to reset the case of this magnitude on the day of trial, it must be very significant,” Garcia said. “This qualifies for a very significant event.”
Dressed in a blue button-down shirt and tie, his hair white and brushed back, Atrops sat next to his lawyers, Pollan and April Yates. He was escorted into the courtroom by two deputies. One removed the chains around Atrops’ waist and handcuffs as he prepared for the morning’s proceedings.
Atrops has been held at the Washington County Jail since his arrest in early 2023.
“Mr. Atrops does consent to this reset?” Garcia asked Pollan.
“He does,” she said. “He understands the significance of this.”
Atrops spoke up, saying yes quietly.
The judge postponed the trial and dismissed the jury — determining that an entirely new jury would need to be selected — and set another hearing to check on the status of the case next week.
— Noelle Crombie is an enterprise reporter with a focus on criminal justice. Reach her at 503-276-7184; ncrombie@oregonian.
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