A Miami judge has thrown out a plea deal for Ernest Roberts, the former assistant principal at Miami Norland Senior High School accused of killing Camila Russell, a mother and former Miami-Dade teacher, in 2019. The judge acted after family members told the court they did not want the agreement.
Under the proposed deal, Roberts would have served 30 years in prison, followed by five years of probation, with credit for the seven years he has already spent in custody. Prosecutors and his attorneys had reached the agreement after more than two dozen trial delays.
At the plea hearing, Russell’s daughters read emotional impact statements. The younger daughter described struggling to wake up and getting bad grades after her mother’s death. The older daughter addressed Roberts directly, calling him a coward. Roberts, who is also the godfather of the two girls, did not show any emotion during the hearing.
According to prosecutors, Russell was seen on surveillance video entering Roberts’ Miami Gardens home on May 15, 2019. Later that day, he was captured putting something in the trunk of her car and driving away in it. Her vehicle was found near County Line Road days later, and her body was discovered the next day in a canal in Miami Gardens.
Roberts was arrested after investigators pointed to surveillance footage, blood found in his home and a handwritten note about getting rid of her car. He was charged with first-degree murder, and prosecutors at one point sought the death penalty. The case has not yet gone to trial.
Family members said the plea deal would have let Roberts avoid sitting through a trial and hearing the evidence against him.
