SPRINGFIELD — The widow of murder victim Carey Heidt may be spending Christmas in jail after her arrest on contempt of court charges.
Robin Seabrook Rast Heidt Cave, 37, turned herself in at the Effingham County Sheriff’s Office on Monday after deputies conducted a publicized four-day search for her.
Cave was arrested after a $2,904 check she was ordered to pay to the court was returned as insufficient.
She was ordered to repay with certified funds by noon on Friday, Dec. 16.
“Upon failure an order for her arrest was signed,” Effingham County Sheriff’s office spokesman David Ehsanipoor said.
Effingham County court records show the funds were paid to the court 93 minutes late on Friday using 10 money orders.
The money came from her children’s social security benefits. The funds were ordered to be paid to the court so that Cave’s former mother-in-law, Linda Heidt, who was granted temporary primary custody of the children on Dec. 2, could provide for the children.
Court documents filed Monday by Cave’s Savannah attorney, Abda Lee Quillian, state that Cave was not able to turn herself in earlier at the sheriff’s office out of fear for her safety. The documents stated that Cave was aware Craig Heidt, who was convicted last year of killing Cave’s husband and her father-in-law, Philip Heidt, would be housed at the Effingham County Jail over the weekend for attendance at a motion for a new trial his defense had filed.
“... she (Robin Heidt Cave) is not able to turn herself into the Sheriff’s office while he (Craig Heidt) remains in Effingham County,” according to the filing.
Cave testified during Heidt’s trial to having an affair with Craig Heidt at the time of the 2008 shotgun murders.
Cave is being held in the Effingham County Jail pending a court appearance. A bond hearing would be heard in Superior Court and is not likely to be held this week.
The motion
Cave was indirectly part of the hearing on Craig Heidt’s motion for a new trial held on Monday.
A shotgun owned by Carey Heidt and not turned over to the defense could have resulted in a different verdict, defense attorney W. Dow Bonds told Superior Court Judge F. Gates Peed Monday morning.
Bonds’ client, Craig Heidt, was convicted last December in the 2008 shotgun deaths of his father, Philip Heidt, and brother, Carey Heidt. He also was convicted of shooting his mother, Linda Heidt, who survived the attack.
Bonds, at the hearing Monday, claimed the state failed to inform the defense of a shotgun taken by Robin Heidt Cave for repair to a Port Wentworth man during Craig Heidt’s murder trial.
Walter David Dumas testified he is a longtime friend of the Heidt family and a custom rifle builder.
Dumas said Carey Heidt’s widow, Robin Heidt Cave, brought him a shotgun for repair in November 2010. The murder trial was held from Dec. 1 to Dec. 9, 2010.
Cave testified during the murder trial she had an affair with Craig Heidt — her brother-in-law — beginning in spring 2008. Their affair led to the murders, prosecutors claimed.
Dumas testified he was contacted by Jason Sapp, who was dating Cave at the time, asking if he could reassemble a shotgun for her.
Dumas said Sapp told him the shotgun had been taken apart for cleaning by John Henry Rast, Cave’s late brother. Rast committed suicide in September 2010. His death delayed the trial and was investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Testimony in the trial indicated Rast was out-of-state when the murders were committed.
Dumas said he never worked on the 12-gauge shotgun after Cave delivered it and that he took it to Sheriff Jimmy McDuffie when he realized it could be connected to the Heidt shootings.
McDuffie told the court Monday that the shotgun was never thought to be the murder weapon. He said Bonds and prosecutor Michael Muldrew had been told about Dumas’ statement during the murder trial.
“There was no reason for alarm, nobody was hiding anything from anybody, right?” Muldrew asked of McDuffie.
All three Heidt victims were shot once with a 3-inch shell. The murder weapon was never found and no shell casings were left at the scene.
“There was nothing at the scene that can be tied to a particular gun,” Muldrew said.
Without shell casings a possible match cannot be made, Muldrew said.
Muldrew offered additional evidence on cross-examination that pointed to the defense knowing about the shotgun before the trial.
Dumas admitted on cross that Chris Heidt was with him when he took the shotgun to McDuffie in 2010. Chris Heidt is Craig and Carey’s Heidt’s brother.
Muldrew noted Chris Heidt had been a staunch supporter of his brother Craig Heidt.
Muldrew said after the hearing that the shotgun had no evidentiary value and the defense knows it.
“I guess they feel they have to file some motion,” Muldrew said. “There is no evidence to show this gun was involved. It was Carey Heidt’s personal gun.”
The prosecution has photographs of Craig Heidt with an older model 12-gauge shotgun with a wood stock. That gun was reported missing to investigators by Craig Heidt shortly after the murders.
The gun taken to Dumas for repair has a black synthetic stock, Muldrew said.
McDuffie also said the serial number showed the shotgun was owned by Carey Heidt, and was one of five weapons the sheriff’s office took custody of in May 2009.
The five guns brought to the sheriff’s office were taken from Robin and Carey Heidt’s home, while Robin and Craig Heidt were living there together. The guns were brought to the sheriff’s office by Alan Heidt, Craig Heidt’s uncle, who according to Muldrew, didn’t want the weapons near Cave due to her “mental state.”
The sheriff’s office gave the weapons back to Cave’s attorney, Craig Bonnell, in October 2009 upon a judge’s order.
Bonds said he had no recollection of being informed about the shotgun during the trial and that the prosecution has no documentation of testing any of the five weapons.
Bonds also said not knowing about the shotgun hampered his client’s case.
“Had we known this weapon had been taken apart by John Henry Rast prior to his suicide we could have cross-examined Robin Heidt (Cave) about the gun and its location during the GBI investigation of his suicide. It could have completely changed our defense.”
Bonds also said in court documents the court erred in not allowing a change of venue for the trial.
The prosecution was given until Jan. 27 to reply and the defense was given until Feb. 17 to answer.
