Robert Earnest Rozier Jr. (born July 28, 1955) is an American murderer and former defensive end.
Born in Alaska and raised in California, Rozier was a high-school and collegiate athlete before briefly playing professional gridiron football. In the 1980s, he joined the Nation of Yahweh, and by Halloween 1986 had killed at least four people on behalf of the religious group. Charged therefor, Rozier turned state's evidence against the group and its leader, and was sentenced to 22 years in prison; he was paroled after ten and put into witness protection. After Rozier was caught bouncing checks in 1999, he was sentenced to 25 years-to-life under California's three-strikes law in 2001.
While playing professional football in Canada, Rozier allegedly wrote bad checks for US$20,000–30,000 (equivalent to about $53,000–80,000 in 2022). By November 1986, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had 32 warrants for fraud against Rozier.[2]
In an effort to join the Yahweh's "Brotherhood"—"a secret group […] of tall, muscular young men available for discrete missions"—Rozier undertook the initiation of killing random "white devils". In April 1986, in the Miami neighborhood of Coconut Grove, Rozier followed a drunk white man to his apartment and killed him and his roommate with a twelve-inch (300 mm) Japanese knife.[4] On September 5, Rozier and another Brotherhood member killed the unconscious 61-year-old Raymond Kelly,[6] who was parked in a bar parking lot; the two men cut off the victim's ear to show ben Yahweh, and when they lost it, returned to the body to cut off the other.[4] Fifteen days later, Rozier and three other Yahwehs killed 45-year-old Cecil Branch (stabbing him 25 times) in retaliation for a previous confrontation.[6]
On October 27, 1986, the Nation of Yahweh bought a five-building apartment complex in Opa-locka, Florida, for $480,000 (equivalent to about $1.28 million in 2022). Under the auspices of trying to improve the property, Yahweh members spent that week attempting to evict residents. On October 31, 28-year-old Anthony Brown and 37-year-old Rudolph Broussard were shot to death, and Rozier was charged with one count of first-degree murder.[7]
Upon Rozier's arrest, he told police that "he was 404 years old and couldn't remember his life before conversion." For seven months, the Nation supported Rozier with a lawyer (Ellis Rubin) and a public-relations campaign; when Rozier issued an ultimatum to the church for a different lawyer, he was excommunicated. In March 1988, Rozier turned state's evidence in exchange for a 22-year sentence. He told of the Nation of Yahweh's crimes to the Metro-Dade Police Department (MDPD): some murders were committed in retaliation, some members of the church would brag about killing on behalf of the group, and a church rumor told of its own involvement in the 1983 public beating death of martial artist Leonard Dupree. Rozier also explained about the Brotherhood, its initiation, and its purpose. All-told, Rozier personally confessed to four murders.[5]
By 1990, the MDPD had built a "14-murder conspiracy indictment against 16 members of the Yahweh Nation and their spiritual leader, Yahweh Ben Yahweh." This case relied heavily upon Rozier's claims, a vector of attack used by Yahwehs' criminal defense lawyers; Patricia Williams (defending Judith Israel a.k.a. Linda Gaines) claimed "Robert Rozier is singing a song in order to avoid a life sentence or death sentence", and Curtis Jones (defending Isaiah Solomon Israel a.k.a. James Littlejohn) alleged that "He's the biggest liar […] I dare say the man would lie on his mother, much less Yahweh Ben Yahweh, his friends and associates. ... He's been able to elude Old Sparky (Florida's electric chair) four times." Despite these attacks on Rozier, the MDPD had never caught the man in a lie.[5] Ultimately, ben Yahweh was acquitted of murder after Rozier was discredited.[3]
For his 22-year sentence, Rozier was imprisoned outside of Florida under a new name courtesy the United States Federal Witness Protection Program.[5] In 1996, after ten years behind bars, Rozier was paroled with the new identity of Robert Rameses. In 1999, he expressed remorse for his crimes, telling the Associated Press that he had "rebuilt his life in an intense spiritual and intellectual transformation."[3]
Third strike
On February 5, 1999,[8] Rozier was arrested (as Rameses) by El Dorado County, California, sheriff's deputies[3] for a bounced check of $66 (equivalent to $115.94 in 2022). Rozier volunteered his criminal past and former identity; though the new charge would otherwise be a misdemeanor, under California's then-new three-strikes law, state prosecutors sought felony charges. His bail was set at $10 million (equivalent to about $18M in 2022). By May 2000, Rozier was imprisoned in South Lake Tahoe, California, waiting for a June trial.[8] At the conclusion of his trial in Placerville, California, Rozier was convicted of bouncing 27 checks for a total of $2,200 (equivalent to $3,865 in 2022); he was sentenced to prison for 25 years-to-life on January 12, 2001.[9] Under his witness-protection alias, Rozier was denied parole on February 16, 2022, and is not eligible for another hearing until 2027.[10] As of September 2023[update], Rozier was imprisoned at Mule Creek State Prison as Rameses, with prisoner number P99863.[11]
^ ab"Murder victims". Miami Herald. November 8, 1990. ISSN0898-865X. OCLC2733685. Archived from the original on February 15, 2020. Retrieved September 30, 2020. Members of the Yahweh sect are responsible for 14 murders in Dade, according to the federal indictment unsealed Wednesday. The following information about the victims is based on the indictment and other court records.
