After 30-plus years, verdict finally comes in Croydon mom's murder, arson. What's next

A one-time confidential drug informant has been found guilty of killing his former neighbor and setting her home on fire in 1991, bringing one of Bucks County's longest cold cases to a verdict.

Bucks County Common Pleas Judge Wallace Bateman Jr. found Robert Atkins, 57, guilty of first-degree murder and two counts of arson in the April 19, 1991 murder of Joy Hibbs.

Atkins showed no emotion after hearing the verdict. He maintained a stoic demeanor for most of the trial.

Hibbs' husband, Charlie, 68, and the couple’s children, Angie and David, and family and friends who have attended the trial since it started Monday embraced and cried in the Bucks County courtroom when the verdict was read Thursday afternoon.

Joy Hibbs murder investigation timeline 'Living on borrowed time:' A timeline of the investigation in the Joy Hibbs murder in Croydon

The Hibbs family expressed their gratitude to all those involved in reopening the investigation two times after 1991 leading to Atkins arrest, said David Hibbs, who was 12 when his mom was murdered.

"Today's verdict is bittersweet for our family," David Hibbs said. "It's 32 years overdue, but justice has finally prevailed. A first-degree murder verdict was the only acceptable option for us today."

Wallace is expected to sentence Atkins on Friday to life without parole. The DA's office opted not to pursue the death penalty after speaking with the Hibbs family, said District Attorney Jennifer Schorn, who prosecuted the case.

“We gave them time to process and consider everything and they decided this is what they wanted and after what they have been through, how could that not be a compelling reason for us to decide to proceed immediately to sentencing,," Schorn said. "They are ready to close this chapter.”

While the family initially wanted to see Atkins sentenced to death as a symbolic gesture, they changed their minds for "practical purposes," David Hibbs said.

"Given Pennsylvania's moratorium on executions and the fact the justice in this case has already been delayed 32 years, our family is looking forward to moving on with our lives," said David Hibbs, who like his father currently lives on the West Coast.

The guilty verdict capped four days of often emotional testimony and argument in the cold case which was reopened a second time in 2021, after Hibbs family and friends offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to arrest.

Atkins was charged with first and second-degree murder and related charges, including multiple counts of arson, robbery and burglary, following the recommendation from the Bucks County grand jury in May 2022. He was found not guilty on those other charges

Joy Hibbs, a 35-year-old married mother of two and medical assistant, was found dead inside her fire ravaged Croydon home. An autopsy found she had been stabbed five times, strangled, and her chest stomped on, and died before the fire was set to destroy evidence.

Atkins was identified as a suspect in the crime within days of the murder and fire after learning about a lingering dispute between him and the Hibbs over marijuana he sold them and that he was known to drive a blue Chevy Monte Carlo , which witnesses saw outside the Hibbs home shortly before the fire.

But he was quickly dismissed in the initial investigation after police claimed they confirmed his alibis that he and his family were on a weekend vacation in the Poconos. The 2022 grand jury found holes in those alibis and ignored evidence pointing to Atkins as the suspected killer.

The Hibbs family has been openly critical of the Bristol Township Police Department and believe that Atkins’ previously undisclosed work as a confidential drug informant influenced how the investigation was initially handled resulting in a more than 30 year delay in justice.

Investigators involved in the case in 1991 and more recently testified throughout the trial that the original police investigation was problematic.

The first Bristol Township lead detective in the case testified Wednesday that Atkins was developed as a suspect, but a narcotics officer in the department ordered him multiple times not to talk to Atkins about the murder.

“We don’t want anyone screwing up our narcotics deals,” retired Lt. Samuel Wisniewski testified he was told.

Other Bristol Township police interviewed Robert Atkins only once at his home five days after the murder and not again until 2014, when the case was reassigned, to a new Bristol Township detective.

Defense attorney, Craig Penglase capitalized on the investigation’s shortcomings as raising a "mountain of doubt" — which he described as “rampant police corruption” — in his closing arguments Thursday.

“It’s really no wonder the crime hasn’t been solved,” Penglase said. “This investigation was botched from the beginning.”

Among the 1991 failures Penglase highlighted were the failure to preserve evidence; how evidence was selected, handled and stored; poor documenting of suspect interviews and failing to interview Atkins‘ then-wife April, who was also Joy Hibbs’s best friend. She was not interviewed until 2014.

Penglase also accused the district attorney’s office of rushing its most recent investigation to focus on Atkins to satisfy the timeline of a true crime TV production company filming an episode on the unsolved murder.

In her closing arguments, though, Schorn argued all the strongest evidence throughout the decades pointed clearly at one person as the killer: Robert Atkins.

Schorn citied witnesses testimony that Atkins threaten to kill Hibbs and blow up her home twice in the weeks leading up to the murder and fire. Atkins' youngest son, Gabriel, and a former cellmate testified that he implied through gestures that he was involved in the murder.

The key prosecution witness, April Atkins, also testified the day of the murder her husband, who she alleged was abusive to her, came home to their Falls apartment filthy and covered in what she thought was blood.

He then ordered her to call out from her job less than an hour before she was supposed to show up for her shift because he was taking the family on a spur of the moment trip to the Poconos. At the time April Atkins was the family breadwinner and she was not paid for the two days she called out.

While in the Poconos, April Atkins testified this week that Robert purchased new sneakers, and disposed of something in a paper bag in a wooded area behind the motel where they stayed.

Atkins used the trip as part of his alibi when police questioned him about the murder after he returned five days later. Police were sent to the motel and, at the time, checked the register and claimed Atkins was there.

The more recent police investigations, though, found that April Atkins signed in shortly before 5 p.m. the day of the murder; Hibbs was believed killed between 12:30 and shortly after 1 p.m. which law enforcement witnesses testified gave him plenty of time to commit the crime and drive to the motel.

“Joy died an unimaginable death,” Schorn said. “This family has waited 33 years. Justice has been delayed but it must not be denied.”

Retired cop reacts to arrest He had a hunch, but no evidence. 30 years later this old Bristol Township cop celebrates arrest in 1991 murder

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Robert Atkins convicted in murder of Joy Hibbs in 30-year cold case