A man accused of killing an elderly woman formerly from Knox could face the death penalty if he is convicted. Roy Bell of Rochester will appear in Fulton Superior Court on Tuesday, where he faces charges including Murder as he is the suspected gunman in the death of 81-year-old Wilma Upsall during a bungled home invasion in November 2011.
Two other men, William Scroggs of Delong and Jason Miller of Plymouth, face similar charges but prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty in either of those cases. The state filed a request for the death sentence for Bell in March and the initial hearing for that request was held on April 3.
Upsall was murdered in November 2011 when she was tied to a chair and shot multiple times. The court documents indicated that Miller told investigators that he and Scroggs were outside Upsall’s home when they heard the shots and that Bell told them later that Upsall had seen his face.
The trio was apprehended soon after. Police noticed a Chevrolet El Camino traveling near Monterey on 20 A Road at a high rate of speed, and they soon learned that the occupants of the vehicle were the men the police wanted to question concerning the death. They led police on a ten minute car chase that ended when the vehicle crashed on State Road 117. The three men fled the scene on foot, but were apprehended after an extensive manhunt.
The three men have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
