The Raven Abaroa murder trial in Durham, NC: A timeline of events
On April 26, 2005, Raven Abaroa told Durham Police that he returned home late at night and found his wife Janet stabbed to death in their home on Ferrand Drive.
The couple, who met while attending college at Southern Virginia University in Buena Vista, Va., had been married almost five years when Janet was killed. Police charged Raven Abaroa with the murder, but his trial resulted in a deadlocked jury and mistrial, and Abaroa later took an Alford plea to avoid a second trial.
Below is a timeline of the murder investigation and trial, from News & Observer reporters who covered it over the years.
Timeline of the Abaroa case
April 26, 2005 - Police are called to 2606 Ferrand Drive around 11 p.m. after a 911 call from Raven Abaroa reports that his 25-year-old wife, Janet Abaroa, is injured inside their three-bedroom home. Janet was pronounced dead at the scene. The couple’s 6-month old son, Kaiden, was found uninjured in the home. Family members later confirmed that Janet, who grew up in Annandale, Va., and was a soccer star at Southern Virginia University, had been stabbed to death.
August 2005 - Autopsy results confirm that Janet Abaroa was pregnant at the time of her murder. She was found in a kneeling position in her bedroom and had been stabbed in the neck and chest. Janet’s family reports that Raven and Kaiden moved to Utah to be near Raven’s family.
August 23, 2005 - Raven, now working as a salesman for a mobile phone contractor in Utah, pleaded guilty to five felony counts of embezzlement from his previous employer, Eurosport. Both Raven and Janet had worked for the Hillsborough, N.C., sporting goods company until Raven stole more than $9,000 from them. He was ordered to pay $9,600 in restitution and was placed on supervised probation for 24 months. His probation is transferred to Utah.
January 24, 2006 - Durham police announce a $5,000 reward in Janet’s unsolved murder and say that the crime was “not random.” They also say that a laptop was missing from the Abaroa home after the murder.
February 1, 2010 - Nearly five years after Janet’s death, police arrest Raven Abaroa, now 30, and charge him with murder. Raven had moved to Idaho, where he was arrested without incident. Two weeks later, a Durham grand jury indicted Raven for murder. Raven is extradited to Durham the following week.
March 3, 2010 - Durham County prosecutors announce they will not seek the death penalty for Raven Abaroa, who is represented by Chapel Hill lawyer Amos Tyndall. Assistant DA Jim Dornfried asked Janet Abaroa’s family if they wanted the death penalty for Raven, and the family said no, not wanting Kaiden to grow up with both of his parents dead.
July 2010 - The body of Janet Abaroa, buried in Pennsylvania, is exhumed. Durham Police request that Franklin County, Pa., officials collect evidence of knife markings, check her eyes for contact lenses, take fingerprints and make biofoam casts of Janet’s hands.
April 22, 2013 - Jury selection begins in the trial of Raven Samuel Abaroa. Judge Orlando Hudson (known for presiding over the Michael Peterson trial in 2003) denied a motion to dismiss the case. (Raven’s attorney claimed Durham investigators collected blood that pointed to a third person on the scene, and argued that an SBI investigator who examined blood on Abaroa’s sweatshirt had been discredited in 2011 for fabricating, ignoring and withholding evidence in several other criminal trials. An independent investigator did not agree with the original investigator’s findings. Defense attorneys also argued that evidence left at the crime scene, which had been destroyed by a church cleaning crew, could have cleared Abaroa. The judge disagreed.)
April 29, 2013 - The trial begins with Janet Abaroa’s mother, also named Janet, the first to testify. Janet Christiansen said Raven had been controlling, unfaithful and verbally abusive toward her daughter. Other witnesses in the trial would testify that Janet and Raven Abaroa split up briefly in 2004 because of Raven’s infidelities, and that Janet Abaroa was “scared” of her husband and tried to get him into therapy. Witnesses also testified that Raven collected knives.
May 9, 2013 - Janet Abaroa’s sister tells jurors she found a CD copy of Raven’s laptop hard drive inside his luggage that was made the day before Janet’s murder. Raven told police the laptop was missing from the house following Raven’s murder. On May 13, Raven’s second wife, Vanessa Pond, testified that Raven had threatened her with violence during their relationship. The two married in Utah in September 2008. Jurors are also shown a video in which Raven Abaroa holds up a knife he said Durham police overlooked at his house during their investigation. Police say that did not happen.
May 29, 2013 - After nearly five hours of closing arguments, attorneys hand the Abaroa case over to the jury. Over the next two days, the jury asks for a recording of Abaroa’s 911 call, crime scene photos and photos of Abaroa at the police station, Abaroa’s clothing, a map of the layout of the home, video and transcripts of police interviews and also the couple’s phone and bank records. They also re-watched a video of Raven talking to a camera after a phone call with a Durham investigator. In the video, he talked about needing money for his “fight.”
May 31, 2013 - Judge Hudson declares a mistrial after the seven-man/five-woman jury says they are deadlocked 11 to 1 in favor of guilt. Prosecutors say they will re-try the case.
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June 8, 2013 - Raven Abaroa rejects a plea deal with a downgraded charge to second-degree murder, which would have come with a sentence of 19 years, 2 months to 24 years, 6 months.
March 12, 2014 - Raven Abaroa accepts a plea agreement in which he pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter while maintaining his innocence. The deal, known as an Alford plea, means he did not admit guilt but plead guilty because he believed it to be in his best interest. The deal means Abaroa would spend between 7 years, 11 months and 10 years, 1 month in prison. He was given credit for 1,500 days already served, which means he could be released in as few as four years.
December 25, 2018 - Raven Abaroa is released from prison on Christmas Day.
This story was originally published March 27, 2019 at 5:42 PM.
