Jurors Hear Tape of Police Interrogation : Defendant Sobs But Remains in Control Under Intense Questioning in Death of Actress Mother

Detectives shouted “You killed her!” and “You had it all planned!” at Timothy Scott Roman shortly after the 25-year-old was picked up for questioning in the brutal slaying of his actress mother, according to a tape recording played in Van Nuys Superior Court on Thursday.

But in contrast to the depiction of Roman as mentally fragile, the recording of the 90-minute interrogation indicates that the defendant held his own against the two interrogators.

Roman, a former art student at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, is accused of beating to death his mother, 59-year-old Susan Cabot, in December, 1986, at the Encino home they shared. Cabot was a leading actress in 1950s action movies.

Charged with first-degree murder but without the special conditions that could lead to the death penalty, Roman faces a possible term of life in prison.

Insanity Plea

He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. If convicted of the slaying, his insanity claim will then be heard before the same jury.

In pretrial motions and since the trial began three weeks ago, Roman, who suffers from a growth hormone deficiency and has been described by his attorney as “an experiment of the human race,” has sat with head bowed and eyes downcast, seemingly oblivious to the proceedings.

But in the taped interrogation, which took place between 1 and 3 the morning after the slaying, the defendant sobbed repeatedly but never seemed close to losing his composure.

“I had nothing to do with it. I swear to God!” he shouted back at his interrogators. “I loved her.”

Finally, he declared: “I’d like to speak to an attorney if we’re going to have any more of this stuff.”

Defense Demand

Ironically, it was defense attorney Chester Leo Smith who demanded that the tape be played for jurors, although his client’s demeanor on tape seemed to undercut the defense claim that Roman’s mental capacity is diminished by lifelong administration of a growth hormone.

In an interview, Smith would say only that he wanted to show jurors that “they leaned on him pretty hard.”

Before the playing of the tape, Los Angeles Police Detective Patrick Conmay testified that he decided to charge Roman with murder after Roman gave detectives “three separate and distinct versions” of what happened the night of the slaying.

In the taped conversation, Roman told Conmay and Detective Philip Quartararo that when he went to investigate a pounding sound coming from his mother’s bedroom, he was attacked by a tall Latino man wearing a Ninja mask.

Stabbed in the arm and knocked unconscious, he called police, then waited for help to arrive before entering his mother’s room, Roman said.

Under further questioning, the defendant said that after calling police, he looked briefly into his mother’s room from the entryway and saw her body lying across her bed.

Finally, with Conmay and Quartararo prodding him repeatedly, Roman said that before calling police, he entered the bedroom, knelt down and lifted a blood-soaked cloth covering his mother’s head and concluded that she was dead.

Smith sought to get Conmay to admit that Roman could have believed all three versions were true at the time he related them.

But Judge Darlene S. Schempp upheld Deputy Dist. Atty. Bradford E. Stone’s objection that such speculation was beyond the detective’s expertise.

The trial is expected to continue for at least another month.