Bio

Robin McKennel Lovitt was born on November 6, 1963. Before the killing, Lovitt had worked as a cook at the Arlington pool hall where Clayton Dicks was later murdered. He had stopped working there about two months before the crime. Because of his previous job, he was familiar with the business and the cash register area.

Lovitt also had a prior criminal history. During the penalty phase of his trial, evidence was presented that he had been charged with assault as a child and later had convictions involving burglary, larceny, marijuana, and cocaine. These earlier offenses were used by prosecutors during the sentencing phase.

By November 1998, Lovitt was connected to the pool hall through his past employment. The prosecution argued that he returned to the business to steal money and killed Dicks when Dicks interrupted the robbery.

Murder Story

The murder happened in the early morning hours of November 18, 1998, at an Arlington County pool hall. Clayton Dicks was working as the manager during the night shift and was the only employee on duty after about 3:00 a.m. According to the prosecution, Lovitt hid inside the building until the pool hall was mostly empty. He then tried to break into the cash register. Dicks interrupted him, and the confrontation turned violent.

Two men, Jose Alvarado and Carlos Clavell, entered the pool hall at about 3:25 a.m. They saw two men fighting behind the counter. One man stabbed the other with a silver-colored weapon and then kicked him while he was on the floor. The witnesses ran to a nearby service station and called 911. Dicks had been stabbed several times, including wounds to the chest and back. Four of the wounds were described as fatal. He was still alive when paramedics arrived but died after reaching the hospital.

Police found that the cash register had been forced open and that one of its money boxes was missing. A police dog later found a pair of bloodstained orange-handled scissors nearby. The scissors were identified as a pair normally kept near the cash register. DNA testing showed that the blood on the scissors belonged to Dicks.

Lovitt’s cousin later testified that Lovitt came to his house that night carrying a metal box. They opened it with a screwdriver and split the money. A forensic scientist testified that the cash box came from the pool hall’s register. Lovitt told police a different version, saying he saw another man stabbing Dicks and then took the cash box from the floor.

Lovitt was arrested on November 24, 1998. On September 20, 1999, a jury found him guilty of capital murder during the commission of a robbery. After a separate sentencing hearing, he was sentenced to death on March 1, 2000. Lovitt appealed his conviction and sentence. His lawyers argued that the case depended heavily on witness testimony and circumstantial evidence. They also argued that DNA testing might have helped prove his innocence, but the key biological evidence had been destroyed after trial.

The destruction of the evidence became the most important issue in the case. In May 2001, Virginia law required biological evidence in capital cases to be preserved. Less than three weeks later, an Arlington County court clerk ordered the evidence in Lovitt’s case destroyed. The destroyed material included evidence that Lovitt’s lawyers said could have been tested further.

Lovitt’s execution was first scheduled for July 11, 2005, but the United States Supreme Court stayed it to review his appeal. The Court later declined to hear the case, and a new execution date was set for November 30, 2005.

On November 29, 2005, one day before the scheduled execution, Governor Mark R. Warner granted clemency and commuted Lovitt’s death sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Warner said the improper destruction of evidence created serious fairness concerns in a case involving the most severe punishment.