Ex-wife of murder defendant Robert Atkins takes stand in Joy Hibbs case; what she said
When April Atkins saw her husband for the first time the afternoon of April 19, 1991 his appearance left her shaken. His clothes were filthy and covered with what appeared to be blood.
“What happened to you?”
Her then husband, Robert Atkins, answered her question.
But nearly 33 years later, April Atkins was not allowed to testify about his response when the trial for the 57-year-old Bristol Township man resumed this week.
More on murder of Joy Hibbs After 31 years, ex-neighbor of Croydon mom killed in 1991 to face trial for her murder
Robert Atkins is accused of stabbing and strangling his former neighbor, Joy Hibbs, and setting her family’s home on fire, a crime he was suspected of more than three decades ago, but wasn’t charged with until 2022.
Bucks County Common Pleas Judge Wallace Bateman Jr., who is hearing the case, put restrictions on what April Atkins could reveal about a conversation she and her then-husband had about his activities the day Hibbs was killed.
The couple separated in 2000, and divorced in 2007.
Atkins could only reveal what her former husband told her if the defense questioned her character. But Robert Atkins' attorney, Craig Penglase, opted not to cross examine her.
April Atkins was able to testify about the other events surrounding that day in April 1991 when Robert Atkins ordered her to call out of work less than an hour before she was scheduled to report.
He also ordered her to get their two children, ages 4 and 1, ready for a “spur of the moment” weekend trip to the Poconos, she said.
The next day, she testified that Robert bought a new pair of sneakers, put them on and then made the family go on a walk. April and the kids waited at a treeline behind the motel while he walked into the woods carrying a bag.
When he returned, he didn’t have the bag, April Atkins testified.
She described her husband’s temperament as “dynamite,” and accused him of physical, mental and verbal abuse, which stopped her from talking to police in 1991.
Robert Atkins also carried a folding pocket knife, and tapped on the pocket where he kept the knife when he wanted to intimidate her, April testified.
Also Tuesday, the prosecution played phone conversations between April Atkins and Robert Atkins in court recorded in December 2021, after the DA’s office started reinvestigating the Hibbs case.
In the recordings, April Atkins told Robert Atkins a false story that police wanted to interview her and her roommate about the Hibbs case as part of an attempt to get Robert Atkins to implicate himself in the murder.
In the audio, Robert Atkins repeatedly told his ex-wife that she did not have to talk to police, he didn’t know what she was talking about and the police had proof that the family was upstate when Hibbs was killed.
"How can you be two places at the same time? I don’t know what to tell you,” Robert Atkins said multiple times. “Don’t say anything. We’ve already said enough.”
The role of confidential informants How did murder suspect's status as a police informant impact a Bucks County cold case?
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Ex-wife testifies in Joy Hibbs murder case
