LA Forensics: The Sandwich Shop Murders

Unfortunately, none of the shoes matched the printed lifted from the shop's counter. This did not exonerate Robinson he could have tossed the shoes away but the failure to match the impression did mean that SID could not definitively use this piece of evidence to place Robinson at the crime scene. They still had one item left: the fingerprints. After a comparison, it turned out that Robinson, not his roommate, had picked up the turkey and bacon sandwich.

When Robinson learned that the plastic bag implicated him, he quickly changed his story. He had been in the shop, he admitted, and had picked up the bag in the alley, but he hadn't shot anyone. He had arrived after the victims were already dead, he claimed, and he'd seen Jackson's gray Mustang drive away from the shop. Just before the shooting, he said, he'd been with a friend. When detectives checked his alibi against store records, they found that Robinson had had sufficient time to get from this person's apartment, only a few blocks away, to the shop to commit the crime.

Nevertheless, it was clear that Robinson had an answer for everything. However, the DA's office believed they had enough to take him to trial and to even surprise him. His slippery lies were no match for the evidence, and they could prove it.

"If it wasn't for SID being able to match up our evidence that we recovered at the scene and by examining the gun, " said Detective Richardson, "and even to the sketch artist, I have doubts that we would have been able to really pinpoint James Robinson for the murders."