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Man who killed two deputies will pay for his crime with his life.

By Stephanie Ingersoll
Carolina Morning News

BEAUFORT — It took a jury 13 days to hear all of the evidence in a capital murder case but less than one hour Wednesday to sentence cop killer Tyree Roberts to death.

Tyree Roberts shows little reaction as the jury recommends a penality of death Wednesday. Thomas J. Turney/Carolina Morning News
Roberts, 41, also known as Abdiyyah ben Alkebulanyahh, was convicted Monday in the Jan. 8, 2002, shooting deaths of Cpl. Dyke "A.J." Coursen and Lance Cpl. Dana Lyle Tate of the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office.

The officers were answering a domestic disturbance call at Roberts' Riley Road home when he hid in a closet and opened fire with an assault-style rifle.

Jury foreman Bruce Batastini said Wednesday evening that deciding Roberts' fate was a "gut-wrenching" task but that the jury of eight women and four men worked as a team to do their civic duty.

"(The evidence) was just overwhelming," he said. "We don't want anybody else to have a loss of any kind, a correctional officer, police officer or regular citizen."


D.J. Coursen, left, and Marie Tate embrace as Tate makes her way back to her seat after speaking about her husband at the penalty phase of Tyree's trial. Thomas J. Turney/Carolina Morning News
He also praised the police work of the officers involved in building the case.

"I think we have made our streets a little safer," Batastini said. "God bless our police officers here in Beaufort County. God bless them."

Before the sentence was decided, Roberts stood in the courtroom on Wednesday and apologized to the slain officers' families for what happened at his home. But he did not admit guilt.

"I didn't see any remorse at all," said Coursen's widow, D.J. Coursen. "That was for the jury, not for me and the families."

And it didn't stop the jury from returning to the jury box only 45 minutes after beginning deliberations.

Several jurors cried openly and held hands as they were asked to confirm their sentence of death. Each did.

They found that there were three aggravating circumstances that warranted a death sentence; that both Coursen and Tate were law enforcement officers carrying out their duties when murdered and that two people were killed in the commission of Roberts' crime.

Assistant Solicitor Duffie Stone had told them in his closing statement Wednesday that if they found those aggravating circumstances and agreed that the case "was bad enough," they should return a death sentence.

He went over the case one final time, saying Roberts had waged war on Coursen and Tate without warning as he prepared to ambush the deputies inside his home.

While Coursen and Tate were outside, trying to figure out what was going on that day, Roberts spent 22 minutes loading his gun and strapping on a fanny pack with extra bullets as he waited to ambush them, Stone said.

"Dana Tate and Dyke Coursen never had a chance," he said. "There was a back door (Roberts) could have walked out of if we was scared of police. He was preparing to kill."

Coursen entered the bedroom holding only a flashlight when Roberts opened fire and Tate was wounded and lying on a floor when Roberts moved toward him, still firing until Tate was dead, Stone said.

Those murders capped off a lifetime of crime, including two armed robberies and a drug conviction, the prosecutor said.

"He's already had life in prison," he said.

Roberts had acted as his own attorney in the first phase of trial, but not in the sentencing phase.

Attorney Gerald Kelly told the jury in his closing statement Wednesday that the woman who claimed Roberts was holding her against her will on the day Coursen and Tate were killed set the murders in motion, knowing what would likely happen.

Roberts asked to address the jury but turned to Coursen's and Tate's families as he made his statement.

"I regret and have a lot of sorrow for what has taken place in my home," he said. "There is nothing I can do to bring back their life."

He told them he was not a malicious person and wouldn't blame the families or jurors for what they believed about him.

"I did not hate your husbands," he said. "I did not hate authority. I hate the situation that led them to my home. It was bogus. It was false and I'm sorry to the wives and to the children. Especially to the children."

No other witnesses were put up to present mitigating circumstances in Roberts' defense.

Judge Daniel Pieper found that the jury's decision was lawful and appropriate and ordered that the death sentence be carried out Dec. 22.

"The defendant shall suffer death by electrocution or lethal injection in the manner prescribed by law," he said. "Good luck to you sir."

But Roberts has 10 days to file an appeal and it usually takes years to carry out a death sentence as appeals make their way through courts.

Solicitor Randolph Murdaugh said that in the nearly 40 years he has practiced law, he has never seen a case with a clearer justification for conviction and a death sentence.

"Frankly, it's what I expected and was hoping for," he said. "It thought the evidence was overwhelming to his guilt … and to his character."

The trial was also the longest and most emotional he's ever tried, Murdaugh said.

"God knows you could not find two better people who had gotten killed," he said.

Tate's father, Don Tate of Columbus, Ohio, said nothing can bring back his son, but he was happy with the outcome of Roberts' trial.

"We came to see justice done and we saw just that," he said.

Tate's mother, wife and a daughter were the last three witnesses to take the stand Wednesday before the sentencing phase ended.

Marie Tate told them that she hadn't attended the first two weeks of trial because she couldn't handle it and wanted to remember her husband the way he looked the last morning she saw him.

"He hugged me, we kissed and said 'see ya later,'" she said. "My husband (had) told me that his number one job was to get back home to me."

Roberts was transferred from the Beaufort County Detention Center to a state prison shortly after the death sentence was handed down Wednesday. After the sentence was read, he apologized to Coursen's and Tate's family again and was calmly escorted out of the courtroom.

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