Bucks County man wants evidence in 1991 Croydon murder, arson of young mom thrown out

The attorneys for a Bucks County man accused of killing his former neighbor and setting her family’s Croydon home on fire more than 30 years ago want a judge to toss out testimony from his ex-wife about the murder alleging it was unlawfully obtained.

The motion is one of more than a dozen that defense attorneys for Robert Atkins have filed in advance of his murder trial which could happen later this year.

Atkins, 57,  is accused in the 1991 murder of Joy Hibbs, 35, of Bristol Township, a married mother of two, who was found stabbed, strangled, and beaten in her home, which was then set on fire.

Last year a Bucks County grand jury recommended charging Atkins with 13 felonies including first- and second- degree murder, arson, robbery and burglary.  The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office has certified the case as eligible for the death penalty.

The DA contends that Atkins killed Hibbs over a dispute involving a marijuana sale, and he took her cashed paycheck, and set the family’s Spencer Avenue home on fire to destroy evidence.

While defense attorneys are seeking to have certain testimony and evidence excluded at trial, including an alleged confession by Atkins to a cellmate, the centerpiece for arguments Monday before Common Pleas Judge Wallace Bateman Jr. focused on his ex-wife.

In 2016, April Atkins told a Bristol Township detective that in April 1991,  her then-husband came home looking messed up with what appeared to be dirt and blood on his clothing and confessed he “stabbed” someone and set their house on fire, according grand jury testimony.

Days later April Atkins said she learned that her friend, Joy Hibbs, was murdered on that day.

Bucks County prosecutors consider April Atkins' testimony a linchpin in their case against Atkins.

But his lead defense attorney Craig Penglase doesn’t want a jury to hear the testimony that April Atkins gave to the grand jury and during a preliminary hearing last year implicating Robert Atkins in Hibbs’ murder.

Penglase contends that the grand jury presentment and prosecution’s case against his client was formed based on “confidential communications” that Robert Atkins made to his then-wife during their marriage.

“If this testimony had not been unlawfully procured by the Commonwealth, the Grand Jury would not have had a sufficient amount of evidence with which to return a presentment against Robert Atkins,” Penglase wrote in his motion.

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The couple, who married in 1986, separated in 2000 and the divorce finalized in 2007.

Bristol Township police, who investigated the Hibbs case, never questioned Atkins in 1991.

She first spoke about the murder to a  Bristol Township detective who showed up at her door in 2014.  At the time, though, Atkins admits she “lied” and stuck to the original story her ex-husband gave police about his whereabouts the day of the murder.

Pennsylvania law prohibits husbands and wives from testifying to “confidential communication” made by or to one another in a criminal proceeding unless the privilege is waived or vacated. The presence of a third party or the disclosure of a confidence to another person has the ability to pierce the privilege.

Bucks County First Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Schorn argued that April Atkins was long divorced from her ex-husband when she went to police with information about the Hibbs murder, and that the law doesn’t apply in this case.

Schorn pointed to another similar law that gives spouses the ability not to testify against one another, but the privilege only applies to a “lawful” spouse. The law also includes exceptions including any criminal proceeding in which one of the charges pending against the defendant includes murder.

The Legislature’s purpose for enacting the confidential communication privilege was to protect “martial harmony,” but in the Atkins case, they did not have a happy marriage, so the privilege is disqualified, Schorn added.

She also argued that Robert Atkins vacated his spousal privilege after his youngest son, Gabriel, who lived with him, testified that his father confessed to him in 2021 that he was going to be arrested for something he did “long ago.”

Penglase countered that there is no evidence that Atkins specifically admitted to his son that he murdered Hibbs.

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Days after the murder in 1991, Bristol Township police identified Atkins immediately as a prime suspect, but then swiftly dismissed him, despite strong evidence at the time that suggested his involvement, the grand jury found.

Atkins has denied he was involved in the murder.

For three decades he maintained that his family were on route to a planned Poconos vacation when Hibbs was murdered;  April Atkins’ coworker at the time provided him an alibi for the time Hibbs was murdered. The grand jury  last year, though, found both stories were not believable or credible.

Hibbs family members, including her daughter, Angie, attended the hearing Monday.

The Hibbs family have said they believe that Atkins’ previously undisclosed work as a confidential drug informant for Bristol Township Police influenced the murder investigation and the resulting in a 30 year delay of justice. Bristol Township police have denied the family’s allegation.

There was no indication on Monday when Bateman would make a decision on the spousal privilege question or the other defense motions.

The hearing continues Tuesday with a focus on the prosecution’s request to include certain so-called “prior bad acts” witnesses and testimony at trial.

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This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Robert Atkins wants evidence of confession in Croydon murder tossed