JERRY OTIS ROBINSON
Anyone with information on the Jan. 29, 1999, shooting can call 365-6110 or visit http://www.hanoversheriff.com

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Stacie Harvey Breaker has three reminders of the events of Jan. 29, 1999. When her former boyfriend, Jerry Otis Robinson, unloaded a .22 caliber pistol, six bullets struck her.

Today, three remain lodged in her body.

After shooting Stacie and then attempting to strangle her, Jerry fled the apartment they had shared at Mill Trace Village Apartments. He has been a fugitive since he tried to kill the woman he had at one time planned to make his wife.

Last Wednesday, Stacie talked about that night and her determination to have her day in court.

Financial issues erupted between the couple, prompting Stacie to leave move out of the apartment a couple of weeks before the shooting. “I went back to discuss what we were going to do with the apartment, because the lease wasn’t over yet.” Jerry was still living in the apartment.

“I got off work about 5 and we met for dinner. We were going to discuss everything we needed to do for the apartment. We still had something like four months on the lease.” She said Jerry was “very detail oriented, so I wrote up a little contract and he didn’t like it. Then he got kind of angry.” She said she told him, “ ‘You fix it any way you want to, I’m going home.’ That’s when he stood in front of the door and wouldn’t let me leave.”

Stacie said Jerry then “reached into the coat closet and pulled out a bag, like a plastic bag, and the gun was in there.” After 11 years, she said the memory of a gun she described as black and paint-chipped is vivid.

“I was kind of in a state of shock, and I was like, ‘What are you gonna do with that?’ He said, ‘I’m gonna hurt us if you try to leave.’ ‘Well, that’s not going to happen,’ “ she recalled telling him. “I picked up the phone and dialed 9-1, then heard an unbelievably loud noise and I fell to my knees. I started feeling more pain like on my neck when the bullets were going in my neck.”

“After he had used all the bullets, he sat on my chest and tried to strangle me,” Stacie said.

Of the six shots, three entered her head, two went through her right wrist and one lodged in her left hand.

Stacie, on the floor in a pool of blood, remained conscious. She said Jerry continued talking to her.

A downstairs neighbor “heard my big ol’ mouth screaming and kicking the floor. She’s the one that called 911.” When she realized the severity of the situation, she said she had “to let somebody know what was going on. My ear was ringing so bad I couldn’t hear what was going on.”

When officers with the Hanover County Sheriff’s Office arrived, Stacie said she yelled for help and told them “Come in, he’s gone.” Jerry’s departure was simple: “He walked out the door and shut it behind him.”

“The only thing he picked up was his pager and his keys — he didn’t take anything else.” He did take the gun. “I had never seen a gun in the house. He always told me he hated guns, and the fact that it was in a plastic grocery bag and it was chipped — it had to be an old gun.”

With memories going back to that fateful Friday night, Stacie said Jerry had called to tell her he was going to be late getting off work. Looking back, she said “so he was planning something.”

The relationship

They had been living together three years when she ended the five-year relationship. “He started squandering money and he maxed out all my credit cards. I just got tired of it all and moved out.”

“I wasn’t aware of how much he was using the credit cards, because I’m very trusting — or was. He paid the bills, he controlled the major credit cards. I didn’t realize how many cash advances he was getting until one day I looked at the bills and was shocked.” When she approached him about the matter, she said he told her he would “get it fixed.”

She said Jerry had started his own business, acting as a financial advisor. “People would give him money . . . and he’s invest it for them. He made a lot of bad decisions.”

According to Stacie, Jerry was not a violent man. “He didn’t even like to argue. I’d be the one that wanted to keep on yelling and screaming and he’d just walk away.”

About two months after the shooting, Jerry called Stacie. “He just wanted to apologize for what had happened, and I asked him why did he do it and he said ‘I don’t know,’ and I kept trying to get him to tell me where he was. He said he wouldn’t do that. ‘I just wanted to tell you that I love you’ and that he was sorry and then he hung up. I was trying so hard not to panic. I really just wanted to find out where he was — he just wouldn’t tell me. He just kept saying ‘I’m sorry’ and I’m like, ‘OK, where are you?’ “

As for the injuries she suffered, Stacie is “almost completely deaf” in her left ear. A bullet had gone down the ear canal, through the eardrum, landing on the carotid artery. Surgery is not an option. “The muscle’s already forming around it and they’re afraid it will go in the wrong direction. I just kind of leave them (the bullets) alone.”

The investigation

Lt. Glenn Schneider of the Sheriff’s Office has been on the case from the beginning. He arrived at the Mechanicsville apartment about 11:30 p.m. on Jan. 29, 1999.

A forensics investigator, he had been called to the scene to collect evidence. He joined investigator Bob Schwartz at the apartment.

The lieutenant said officers checked bus stations. Jerry “may have fled out in the Midwest somewhere. He had some college friends that were from that area.” Over the years, Stacie said she has received information about sightings in Milwaukee and Atlanta.

“We feel like he may have gotten on (Interstate) 295 and gotten a ride,” Schneider added.

Capt. Michael J. Trice said the investigation included a comprehensive scene search.
He also said “We were fortunate to be able to talk to the victim.”

Jerry is wanted for aggravated malicious wounding.

A “Wanted” bulletin described Jerry Otis Robinson as being a 5-foot-2, 130-pound black male with brown hair and brown eyes. His date of birth is April 1, 1973. He is “considered armed and dangerous.”

The search

In an effort to gain information on Jerry’s whereabouts, the Fox TV program “America’s Most Wanted” has spotlighted the case three times. Schneider said Stacie had contacted the popular crime show about her shooting.

“She’s pretty proactive,” Trice said. Schneider echoed those sentiments: “She’s very adamant. She wants to catch him, just like we do. She’s looking to any avenue to get him caught and brought to justice.”

“On ‘America’s Most Wanted,’ we’d had numerous leads, but none have put us any closer [to capturing Robinson.”

The show aired on Aug. 19, 2006; June 9, 2007; and Sept. 26, 2009. AMW’s website is http://www.amc.com; information on Robinson can be found under “Fugitives.”

The status

For Stacie, the events of Jan. 29, 1999, still haunt her. “I had to go through a lot of therapy.” She saw psychiatrists to help her deal with panic attacks. “I couldn’t sleep at night because I was terrified. For the longest time, I couldn’t go anywhere by myself because I was scared. I’m better now, but I still feel the anxiety sometimes when I’m by myself, especially at night.”

She occasionally has nightmares. “I still get scared at night sometimes. I just try to go through the day and try to keep it out of my brain.”

While she may admit to Jerry’s impact on her life, she describes herself as being “very ornery, determined. I refuse to let this beat me. I refuse to let him just still be in control.”

As for the Hanover County Sheriff’s Office, Trice said “We haven’t given up on apprehending him.”

Stacie Harvey Breaker remains committed to getting justice. “I just really want my day in court. That would make me happier than anything right now — just my day in court.”