DeBary man goes on trial accused of killing father to gain control of valuable land

A security video recorded a father and son on a pontoon boat at the Highbanks Marina along the St. Johns River 11 years ago, a prosecutor said Friday during a murder trial. The video also showed a propane grill on the boat.

Four days later the body of Robert Remus Sr. was found in the St. Johns River. He had a line tightly wound around his neck. He was tied to a propane grill that had snagged on the river bottom, suspending his decomposing body in the northbound current.

And on Friday, his son, Robert Remus Jr., went on trial accused of strangling his 67-year-old father to death, tying him to the grill and disposing of his body in the river.

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Assistant State Attorney Andrew Urbanak said in his opening statement that it takes three to four minutes to strangle someone to death.

"And that is what Robert Remus Jr. did to his father Robert Remus Sr. on Dec. 8 of 2012 suffocating the life out of him on a boat in the dark of night on the St. Johns River," Urbanak said.

And he did so, Urbanak said, because he wanted to gain control of land owned by his father in a popular surfing area in Costa Rica which the son believed was worth $2 million.

Robert Remus Jr., 54, of DeBary, is on trial charged with first-degree murder in his father's death. He faces a mandatory life in prison if convicted.

A jury of 12 women and two men, including two alternates, began hearing testimony Friday before Circuit Judge Elizabeth Blackburn at the S. James Foxman Justice Center.

Remus Jr. sat next to his defense attorneys looking ahead most of the day, sometimes speaking to his attorneys or turning to look and gesture at family members in the courtroom. At one point, a bailiff ordered him not to turn around.

Remus Sr. lived in Highbanks Marina Park on lot 123. He also owned lot 111 which he was having renovated to flip, according to testimony.

The father and son went on the pontoon boat on Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012. They fueled the boat at the marina. And that’s the last time anyone besides his son saw Remus Sr. alive, said Urbanak, who is prosecuting the case along with Assistant State Attorney Joe LeDonne.

On Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012, recreational boaters found Remus Sr.'s body in the St. Johns River. The shoulders and head were above the surface stationary on the west side of the channel. It was a little more than a mile north of the Highbanks Marina, 488 W. Highbanks Road, a report stated.

Retired Volusia County Sheriff’s Deputy John Jones was on the dive team at that time. He said visibility was poor as he checked the body in the river. He found it was tied to a line and he followed the line to the barbecue grill. The grill’s propane hose had snagged on either a fishing or trap line, on the river bottom.

Prosecutors wheeled the grill into the courtroom to show jurors. It was a large propane barbecue grill with a metal lid and four control knobs. A piece of line like the one attached to the body was still on the side of the grill.

Urbanak said Remus Sr. did not have a lot of friends.

"But he had one person he was close to and that is his son," Urbanak said.

He mentioned the father liked to drink. A medical examiner later testified Remus Sr.'s body had a blood-alcohol content of 0.16 or twice the legal limit at which someone is considered intoxicated for operating a vehicle.

Urbanak said the father flipped trailers and apparently owned valuable property in Costa Rica. The father thought the land was worth $4 million or $5 million. His son thought it was worth at least $2 million.

After the father’s disappearance, Remus Jr. talked to deputies and mentioned the property.

The case went cold and several years passed. In 2019, a new investigator reviewed the case and said it appeared both men's phones were moving around the county together after the father's death.

Almost seven years later, the sheriff's office interviewed Remus Jr. again, and he had no explanation for the phones, Urbanak said.

Remus Jr. made two trips to Costa Rica, but to this day, he has been unable to obtain ownership of the land, Urbanak said.

In his opening statement, Assistant Public Defender John Selden, who is defending Remus Jr. along with Assistant Public Defender Courtney Davison, said there was no surveillance video to show what happened after the pontoon boat returned to a dock on a property they were flipping.

Selden called the security video Urbanak had referred to as just half of a movie without an ending.

He said that once the boat returned, both Remus Sr. and Remus Jr. had other things to do.

Selden said that the father's money and cards, kept together with a rubber band, were found in the area by a man who returned them to the family.

He said the discovery of the money and cards suggested something else happened.

Selden said there was significant possibility or perhaps equal possibility that someone else was involved in what happened to Remus Sr.

And Selden said that Remus Jr. did not kill his father.

The trial continues Monday.