Robertson was charged with the September 1996 murder of his girlfriend Maria Nelson in an apartment they shared. He contended he was handling a gun that accidentally fired, by the State argued the shooting was the result of a domestic dispute. The jury convicted Robertson of second-degree murder, and the trial judge sentenced him to life in prison. The full panel of the Third District Court later affirmed, but several judges dissented on grounds that the State had improperly introduced evidence that Robertson had threatened his former wife with a gun.