By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Robin Heidt testifies about affair with Craig Heidt
Placeholder Image

The widow of an Effingham County man shot and killed along with his father in his father’s home testified Friday to having an affair with her late husband’s brother and said he denied having anything to do with those killings.

Robin Rast Heidt told jurors in the murder trial of Craig Heidt that she and Craig had an affair while her late husband Carey was still alive and the affair resumed and continued after Carey was shot and killed.

She also denied having any role in the deaths of Philip and Carey and the wounding of Linda Heidt, Philip’s wife and Carey’s mother.

“Did you encourage, aid, abet or otherwise assist in the killing of your father-in-law and husband and wounding of your mother-in-law?” asked Assistant District Attorney Michael Muldrew.

“No, I did not,” Robin Heidt said.

Craig Heidt has been charged with the shotgun slayings of his father, realtor and developer Philip Heidt, and his brother in August 2008.

Robin Heidt told the court her husband was a good provider for her and their three children.

“We had a good, prosperous living,” Robin Heidt said of her life with her husband. “He was a very good husband. When he was there, he was a very good father, a wonderful father.”

But as he spent more time at work and less time at home, she said, her late husband became more distant. She said she did not realize the real estate market was not doing well, since Carey did not discuss those things with her.

Robin and Craig began their affair in April 2008 and between then and the morning of the killings, she estimates they were intimate with each other about 20 times. Craig Heidt was living in a cabin on a hunting club near Oliver.

She told her husband about the affair in May, Robin Heidt said, and they seeking counseling. She described her husband as being very upset upon hearing of the relationship between Craig and Robin.

“He said he wished it would have been anyone else except his brother,” she said. “He said he wasn’t going to allow this to happen. He said we were going to work this out. He said Craig would never be a part of the children’s lives.”

Robin Heidt said she didn’t know when Carey’s father was made aware of the affair, but once he learned of it “Philip was very angry and upset with me,” she said.

“One night, I went to Mr. Philip’s office and told him to stay out of it,” she said. “He said he couldn’t because it was family.”

She also recalled a tense encounter with Philip at her and Carey’s home.

“Look around you,” she told the court of what Philip said to her. “These are things Carey can give you. Craig can’t. You don’t understand him. You don’t know how he is. I said, ‘it’s not about these things.’”

That exchange took place about a week or two before Philip and Carey were killed, she said.

Robin said her relationship with Linda Heidt also became distant during this time.

Meanwhile, her affair with Craig continued.

“At the time, I felt Craig was giving me attention Carey wasn’t giving to me,” Robin Heidt said.

The weekend of the shootings, Robin Heidt was supposed to go to a slumber party for a teacher at Guyton Elementary School, where she was a paraprofessional. But one of the other teachers fell ill and since she wasn’t expected to be at home that night, she instead went to Craig’s cabin.

That Saturday morning, a helicopter appeared overhead and lingered for a few minutes.

“I said, ‘it’s probably someone Mr. Philip had hired to fly over and see if I was here,’” Robin said.

The helicopter belonged to Ellis Wood, a Statesboro businessman who had worked with Philip and become a close personal friend of Philip and Carey’s. Wood testified Friday that Philip had called him about a matter that “was tearing his guts out.”  Though Philip wouldn’t say what it was at the time, Wood said he could tell his friend was disturbed by it.

Robin said she and Craig talked about the situation and about how they believed Philip was meddling and trying to control the situation.

“He said if his father were on fire, he would not urinate on him,” Robin told the court. “He made a comment that if Philip and Carey were not careful, he would go old school on them.”

Robin Heidt said she did not know what he meant by that.

She returned home Sunday to make lunch for her family after Carey returned with the kids from church. He left later that afternoon to spend the night at his parents’ house on Springfield-Egypt Road but planned to return to their home on Ebenezer Road in the morning to take the kids to school.

“This would be the first night in 13 years he would have spent the night at his mom and dad’s house?” Muldrew asked.

She awoke at her house Monday morning to three officers banging on her door. When she let them in, they told her Philip and Carey had been killed and Linda had been badly wounded and taken to Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah.

“I was in shock,” she said. “I felt I couldn’t breathe.”

When Craig Heidt called her later, she said he was crying.

“I asked him if he had anything to do with this, and he said no,” she told the court.

Later, in a face-to-face meeting, she questioned him again, she said.

“I want you to look me in the eye and tell me if you done this or not,” Robin Heidt said. “And he said, ‘no.’”

They resumed their relationship in December and at first, he spent about four nights a week at her home, she said, before he moved in full-time.

“We had each other,” she said. “I lost … I lost a lot more than Carey. I lost probably every friend I had because of my relationship with Craig. I had a best friend for 15 years and she stayed with me for another month and then she left.

“It was very stressful. My family wanted to be there for me, but they didn’t approve of the relationship.”

For more, return to www.effinghamherald.net.