Detective details shooting scene as state wraps case against Kevin Robinson

Retired Detective Ace Adams took the stand Monday morning and testified that he responded to the scene of the shooting at the intersection of 27th Avenue and Mercier Street around 2 a.m. on May 27, 2022.

When he arrived, he said he saw a blue car sitting in the middle of 27th Avenue facing west and found multiple shell casings in the road, a bullet fragment in the roadway, and a bullet mark in the pavement.

The casings in the roadway near Rones’ car showed Adams that “as the gun was being fired movement was occurring,” meaning that Kevin Robinson was walking up to Rones’ car while firing shots.

Adams pointed out multiple bullet holes on the car. He said that the defects “centered around that front drivers section.”

Adams confirmed that Rones played basketball early that morning and left the Alaska Club Fairbanks South at 1:41 a.m.

Jurors watched surveillance videos from the former Holiday Gas Station, the Fairbanks Community Food Bank, and a Ring doorbell camera. Adams agreed with Assistant Public Advocate Rachel Duvlea that there were chunks of time where there was no video surveillance.

Surveillance footage showed a gold Ford Escape and a silver Toyota 4Runner. Law enforcement later spotted the 4Runner outside Kevin Robinson’s apartment on Kellum Street on May 28, 2022. The car was registered to Ryan Robinson.

Adams walked jurors through the surveillance footage, which he said showed two cars blocking Rones’ car on 27th Avenue.

The three cars stopped in the road and shots were fired “very quickly” after the passenger door to the Toyota 4Runner opened.

“Thirteen shots can be heard,” Adams said. “You can conclude that basically the gun was fired until it was empty and didn’t fire anymore and shot everything they had.”

Adams testified that two cars sped away from the scene north on Mercier Street.

On June 6, 2022, Fairbanks police conducted a trajectory analysis on Rones’ vehicle. The purpose of the analysis was “to create a trajectory, a path, that a bullet travels as it impacts an object.”

Adams showed the jury photos of four rods and styrofoam balls emerging from Rones’ car in the Fairbanks Police Department parking lot to illustrate the trajectories. Adams testified that the trajectories were labeled in order of probable succession of the shots, since bullets fired from a further distance would be at a lower angle.

“As they approach they begin now shooting at a downward angle,” Adams testified. “Each of these successively become a more downward angle as the shot is being fired and they approach the vehicle.”

The trajectories start at a low angle to the fender of the car and end with a trajectory through the driver’s side mirror to the center console at a high and downward angle, Adams explained. Photos displayed to the jury reflected how far Adams estimated the shooter was from the car and the view of someone firing to create the trajectories that hit the car.

The state rested Monday morning.

Keira Pitzer, Kevin Robinson’s probation officer, testified that Robinson was compliant while on probation and reported when he was supposed to. She said that Robinson did not finish an anger management course, but there was limited availability of anger management classes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pitzer said that the only probation violation she filed while Robinson was on probation was in connection with the shooting incident.

The trial will continue Tuesday morning at the Rabinowitz Courthouse in Fairbanks.