Retrial in 30-year-old murder to begin

LOCKPORT, N.Y. (WIVB) - A car riddled with bullet holes, two students found dead, their classmate was convicted. Fast-forward 30 years and this case that rocked western New York is headed back to court.

When this crime happened, it shocked the North Tonawanda community. For nearly 30 years, the convicted murderer has been trying to get an appeal from prison. He was successful. Monday morning, we were at the State Supreme Court in Lockport as a jury was being picked for the retrial.

During the first trial, Robie Drake was only 17-years-old. The convicted murderer is now 45. He appeared confident and relaxed as he headed into State Supreme Court for day one of jury selection in his upcoming retrial.

Defense attorney Andrew Lotempio said, "He's changed. He's grown up and uh, I think he's done his time."

Buffalo attorney Andrew Lotempio is representing Drake. He says his client admits he shot and killed Amy Smith and Steven Rosenthal nearly 30 years ago, but continues to insist it wasn't intentional.

"There was an area over there in North Tonawanda where there was abandoned construction equipment and cars and tires, etc. and it wasn't uncommon for kids to go there and target practice with rifles, bb guns, etcs. and he fired into a car and unfortunately these two young kids were in there," said Lotempio.

But prosecutors continue to argue that after Drake shot the teens, he then allegedly stabbed them to death and tried to dispose of their bodies before being spotted by police. Drake won a new trial a few months ago after a federal court ruling found that a bogus expert witness committed perjury.

Obviously a lot of time has passed since the shooting. Both lawyers will rely heavily on transcripts of testimony from 30 years ago. The problem now is trying to locate witnesses, some of whom are in poor health, or have since died.

Lotempio said, "The jury's not going to get to see them live, nor see them confronted with modern science and technology."

Drake's mother declined to comment about her son's new trial. She sat on the opposite side of the courtroom from Amy Smith's brother who lost his 16-year-old sister 30 ago and must now relive the nightmare again as the retrial gets started.

Opening arguments could come as early as Tuesday morning. The trial is expected to take about two weeks and might include a possible nighttime field trip for the jury to the scene of the crime.