MIAMI – Jurors on Friday reached a guilty verdict in the trial of a man accused of hitting a Miami-Dade police officer with a cinder block, then running him over with his police vehicle.
Jurors found 36-year-old Michael Robertson guilty of attempted second-degree murder, attempted first-degree felony murder on a law enforcement officer, burglary, and carjacking. They deliberated for about nine hours between Thursday and Friday.
"I thank God that he (Robertson) is in a place where he belongs and cannot harm anyone else," said Castillo.
Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Ellen Sue Venzer sentenced Robertson to three life sentences and 30 years in prison, which will run consecutively.
"The savagery of your actions are unfathomable," said Venzer. "Certainly, you knew that the concrete cinder block would cause great injury or death, but it wasn't enough to satisfy your rage. You dragged his crumbled body into the streets and you drove over him, ensuring that you inflicted as much damage as you possibly could."
According to testimony, Robertson attacked Officer Carlos Castillo after running away from him during a traffic stop in Little Haiti in April 2010. Robertson then climbed onto a roof and threw a 30-pound cinder block onto the officer's head, cracking his skull.
"The jury system works. This is America," said assistant state attorney Gail Levine.
A member of the department's Robbery Intervention Unit, Castillo suffered major injuries to the brain damage, a fractured right arm, a collapsed lung, a lacerated liver and many other injuries.
During testimony, Castillo showed off a lengthy scar on his chest.
Prosecutors said Robertson's DNA and fingerprints were found inside the detective's car. Defense attorneys argued that no one ever got a good look at the person who threw the cinder block.
Robertson insisted his DNA and fingerprints were planted.
"There was no sorcery at play here," said Venzer. "There was no new technology at work here. No one planted your fingerprints or DNA. The evidence was there because you yourself left it there."