Man once convicted of ordering 2 murders in Boise pleads guilty ahead of retrial

Jacob Scholl
·2 min read

Rather than head to another trial, a man once convicted of ordering a double murder in Boise has pleaded guilty to and been sentenced on lesser charges.

Earlier this month, Anthony Robins Jr. pleaded guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter and one count of aiding or abetting aggravated battery, all felonies. Robins was originally charged with murder in the 2014 deaths of Elliot Bailey and Travontae Calloway on the Boise Bench.

Online court records show that Robins has been sentenced to a fixed term of 10 years in prison on the charges, but he was given credit for time served, which totals more than six years. As a result, he could be released from prison as early as January 2025, according to Idaho Department of Correction records.

Robins, originally from Fremont, California, was supposed to face a jury retrial in March before the case was moved to June.

The manslaughter sentence is much less severe than his initial sentence of 40 years in prison, but his murder conviction was vacated by the Idaho Supreme Court in 2018. The sentence is also much lighter than that of his co-defendant, John Douglas, who was sentenced to life in prison for carrying out the killings. Douglas and Robins were both charged with murder and tried together in 2016.

Another man, Samari Winn, was sentenced to up to life in prison for aiding and abetting the murders — he helped Douglas track down the two men before they were killed. Winn will be eligible for parole in 2054.

Robins was charged with hiring Douglas, a Pennsylvania man, to kill Bailey and Calloway in 2014. Bailey and Calloway allegedly stole around 30 pounds of marijuana worth $100,000 from Robins, who was living in Boise at the time.

Bailey and Calloway were gunned down on Calloway’s 27th birthday, and Calloway’s girlfriend was also shot, but she survived.

After his conviction in 2016, Robins appealed his case, arguing that a search of his jail cell that took place before the trial violated his rights.

Prosecutors were told of a letter Douglas wrote to Robins in jail, which prompted authorities to search Robins’ cell, according to previous Idaho Statesman reporting. They didn’t find the letter, but authorities did find handwritten notes that Robins said were meant for his attorney. The notes were turned over to the Ada County Prosecutor’s Office.

A judge later ruled that the notes were confidential but said that Robins’ defense team needed to object during the trial if he believed the prosecution was using anything he’d written in the notes against him.

In 2018, the Idaho Supreme Court ruled in favor of Robins and vacated his conviction. The court ruled that the trial judge failed to fully acknowledge the violation of Robins’ rights, and didn’t give prosecutors a chance to defend themselves and prove that their case did not rely on the notes.

Robins has been incarcerated since his arrest in 2014.

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