BILLINGS - A man accused of killing a woman and leaving her body wrapped in blankets in front of an apartment in the Billings Heights was charged Tuesday with deliberate homicide.
Shane Levi Cole Roberts, 45, appeared for arraignment in Yellowstone County District Court by video from the county jail. His bond was set at $300,000 after a prosecutor described the crime as a "domestic violence homicide."
Roberts is accused of killing a 52-year-old woman who he was living with in an apartment on Sioux Lane. The woman's body was discovered Saturday after police were called to the apartment for a welfare check by a neighbor who said the woman hadn't been seen for some time and who noticed an odor coming from the apartment she shared with Roberts.
The Yellowstone County Coroner's Office has yet to release her name pending the results of an autopsy scheduled for Tuesday. Police previously said she was 52-years-old and court documents identify her by the initials "G.L."
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According to charging documents, officers became involved on Saturday when police received a request for a welfare check after someone reported "a foul odor was coming from the apartment and that the male neighbor was acting strangely." The person who called police also said they had not seen their female neighbor for some time.
Officers who approached the apartment noticed a "distinct foul odor" and "a large pile of blankets directly in front of the apartment door," court records state. Inside the blankets, officers saw what appeared to be a body.
According to the court records, officers secured the area and knocked on the apartment door. They heard a dog barking inside the apartment, but the barking abruptly stopped. Officers entered the apartment and located Roberts "hiding in a closet of a bedroom with a dog."
Neighbors told officers the last time they saw the woman was over a week ago, on Aug. 11. Neighbors said they saw Roberts coming and going from the apartment the last couple of weeks, and one neighbor said she asked Roberts about the woman and he said she hadn't been feeling well.
Neighbors also said they saw Roberts "acting strangely," and in recent days they had noticed the apartment windows and doors were left open. On Saturday, a large pile of blankets appeared just outside the apartment's front door and neighbors noticed the foul odor which led them to call police.
Detectives later found the woman's body had been wrapped in towels, blankets, and a shower curtain and it was "in a state of decomposition." She appeared to have suffered several puncture wounds and cuts, court records state, including to her chest and neck."
Detectives said they found a trash bag hidden in a closet that contained a knife and hatchet set with possible blood and tissue residue. They also located cleaning materials and bathroom items in the trash bag.
During questioning, Roberts told detectives he had met the woman on an internet dating site about two years ago and he moved in with her a couple of months ago. During the arraignment hearing, prosecutors said Roberts is from Wyoming where he has some criminal record, including a DUI conviction.
Roberts allegedly told detectives that the woman "knew how to push his buttons and they would fight on occasion," court records state. When asked about the woman's death, he allegedly said they had been fighting and he blacked out.
"The Defendant described blacking out as he loses control and gains superhuman strength," court records state.
The questioning stopped, court records state, when Roberts asked for an attorney.
