Jury deliberates in trial for 2021 death of man found in ditch

The trial for Robert Nelson III, who is accused of killing another man in Nov. 2021 and dumping his body in a ditch, has gone into jury deliberation.

On the morning of July 10, the state and defense team presented their closing arguments and are now waiting for a verdict. Nelson’s defense argues the killing of Uso Hale in 2021 was justified self-defense, while the state alleges Nelson killed Hale with premeditation in order to steal his pills during a drug deal.

The defendant’s counsel argued self-defense, citing that Hale possessed a firearm, more than one type of bullet was at the scene, and that the state cannot prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt, among other points. Meanwhile, the state argued the killing was a premeditated murder, citing cellphone data and other points.

On July 10, attorney Tim Lewis of Nelson’s defense team began his closing statement by thanking the jury and then reminding them of their duty to uphold his client’s constitutional rights.

“They must prove to you that even if they can establish the elements of either murder in the first degree or murder in the second, beyond a reasonable doubt, they must next disprove beyond any reasonable doubt that this could not have been a justifiable homicide as defined for you in the court’s instructions,” he said.

The state alleges that Nelson, with premeditation, killed Hale at the Mobil gas station in the city limits of Federal Way at 32003 Military Road South in Auburn, on Nov. 11, 2021. The state alleges that Nelson drove about five minutes away from the gas station to a residential rural area and then dumped Hale’s body in a ditch, where Hale was found about 15 hours later by locals on a walk.

Part of the defense’s self-defense argument was that a witness — who said he was like an uncle to Hale — said Hale showed him a gun and said, “I got this on me,” before entering Nelson’s vehicle. The witness said soon after, several popping noises from two firearms were heard coming from the vehicle where Nelson allegedly shot Hale 11 times, according to the documents. Video evidence showed Hale at the Mobil station leaving a vehicle to do an alleged drug deal with Nelson. Additionally, testimony from the witness stated that he brought Hale to the Mobil and was the driver of the vehicle Hale was seen leaving on camera.

Part of the defense’s argument by attorney Lewis states that Hale attempted assault in the second degree when he met Nelson at the Mobil gas station. The defense attorney said that Hale was armed with that firearm he showed to the sworn under oath witness right before he approached Nelson’s vehicle.

“Uso Hale had a gun that was readily accessible to him in his waistband, that he showed to [the witness] literally as he was in the process of getting out of that car and walking over to the other car where the shooting occurred,” Lewis said. “How else do we know that Uso Hale was armed? Again, the testimony of [the witness] said he saw Uso Hale get into the passenger seat of that car and close the door. A short time later, he heard a rapid succession of gunshots.”

Lewis argued that every bullet that was found on Hales’s body had a copper jacket. Meanwhile, there was one bullet that hit the gas station that was silver, and a 9mm pistol was found less than a mile away from Hale’s body, which contained silver bullets. Additionally, he mentioned that the witness said he heard two different guns being fired.

Earlier in the trial, Bryant said that call records showed Nelson’s phone and Hale’s phone together at the Mobil gas station. He said the phones were again tracked together in the general area where Hale’s body was found at the same time that surveillance footage showed a vehicle with the same description as a grey Audi Sedan registered to Nelson, which then subsequently was never recovered, alongside Nelson’s Sig Sauer .45mm pistol registered to him.

Logan Bryant, the prosecutor, argued that Nelson planned to kill Hale. Bryant alleges that before Hale stepped into his vehicle, Nelson already knew he would kill Hale and steal his pills.

“In the span of less than 48 hours, from November 10 to November 11, the defendant went from calling, searching, looking for Uso, to putting eleven gunshot wounds into and all over his body,” Bryant said. “In the span of two minutes, from 4:01 to 4:03, the defendant pulls out that Sig P227 and pulls that trigger over and over and over, impacting Uso’s body with those hollow point bullets. Robert Nelson … wanted to find Uso, and he was going to make sure he was going to find him, and when he did, he killed him.”

Bryant said now, at the conclusion of the trial, the jury knows why this killing happened: pills. He said that Nelson knew Hale would be bringing pills, and he wanted them and had a different idea about how he was going to pay for them. He said that when Nelson was arrested, in his vehicle, he had 117 blue and green pills, the same ones Hale had.

Defense attorney Lewis disputed this argument, saying that Nelson had no plans to rob Hale.

Lewis cited what an earlier witness had testified. King County Sheriff’s Office Detective Sarah Gerlitzs testified that the blue pills Nelson had and were found on Hale’s body were extremely common in 2021 and still are. Lewis said that if the state wanted to prove that the pills in Nelson’s car and the pills that were on Hale’s body were the same ones, they would have submitted them to Washington State Patrol’s crime lab and asked for a forensic analysis to see if they are the same composition.

“There is nothing good about what happened to Uso Hale, and I don’t mean to suggest that it is. It’s a tragedy. But not every tragedy is a crime,” Lewis said. “And even though you might not have liked what happened to Uso Hale, the evidence in this case, simply cannot prove beyond any reasonable doubt that it’s not at least possible that Mr. Hale was armed with a firearm in that car, and threatened my client, or anyone else with it, or discharged that firearm, or shot my client in the arm. The evidence in this case simply does not extinguish that possibility.”