Federal prosecutors were asking for five years in prison for the man who, despite his 2020 indictment and 2024 guilty plea \u2014 to the charge of Conspiracy to Commit Bribery Concerning Programs Receiving Federal Funds\u00a0\u2014\u00a0remains the president and CEO of low-income housing development company City Wide Community Development Corp<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n As prosecutor Chad Meacham told the judge, developer Devin Hall got a year in prison\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and he pleaded guilty to bribing only Davis, the former chair of the council\u2019s Housing Committee. Davis was killed in a horrific 2019 car crash that also claimed her daughter Melissa<\/a>.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cMr. Roberts has to get more than that,\u201d Meacham said.<\/p>\n But Kinkeade seemed reluctant to dole out even that generous of a sentence to Roberts, who, during his brief remarks to the judge, said he was sorry to be in this situation and that \u201cyou grow up trying to do the right thing and don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to cross your path.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But he never apologized, as Caraway did during his 2019 sentencing that resulted in a lengthy stay in a few federal prisons<\/a>. That\u2019s because Roberts now maintains his innocence, insisting in court documents filed last year that he pleaded guilty only because he was ill, scared and acting upon the advice of very bad counsel.<\/p>\n Kinkeade said he had no choice but to punish Roberts, who had pleaded guilty to offering Davis and Caraway cash in exchange for supporting three City Wide projects. Meacham told the judge there was a recurring theme in the investigation into Carolyn Davis, who died before her sentencing: \u201cIf you run the money through a 501(c)(3), they can\u2019t touch you.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n One project involving the nonprofit City Wide CDC was Serenity Place Apartments at E. Kiest Boulevard and S. Lancaster Road, on six acres of land once owned by the city. In 2015 the City Council voted to kick in around $1.9 million<\/a> toward the low-income housing tax credit project\u00a0\u2014\u00a0at the insistence of Davis, prosecutors have long alleged.\u00a0<\/p>\n Another was in the nearby Runyon Springs subdivision, where the city awarded City Wide CDC $1.5 million to build single-family homes on foreclosed lots<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The third involved the infamous Patriot\u2019s Crossing project<\/a>, a three-time loser that returned to council in recent weeks under a new moniker, Veterans Community Project Village<\/a>.<\/p>\n Dallas developer Ruel Hamilton’s 2021 conviction in the City Hall corruption case was tossed by an appeals court, which ruled that sometimes a bribe is just a gratuity, and in 2024 he was found not guilty in Dallas federal court.<\/p>\n File photo\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n During Wednesday\u2019s hearing, Roberts\u2019 Fort Worth attorneys, Michael Heiskell and Nate Washington, walked Kinkeade through the funding of Serenity Place, specifically, and maintained that it was \u201cnot profitable.\u201d They said Roberts never made a cent on the project outside of his annual City Wide salary of $150,000.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The gallery included Roberts\u2019 family, including his wife and two sons; Concord Church Senior Pastor Bryan Carter and members of his flock; political and civic leaders; and other low-income housing developers. They erupted with cheers and applause upon the judge\u2019s ruling. Probation, then the ovation.<\/p>\n Roberts\u2019 indictment and guilty plea were headlines in every media outlet in this town way back when, more seemingly sordid dispatches from the bottomless corruption case that threatened to swallow City Hall. But aside from Elite News publisher and editor Darryl Blair, a friend of Roberts\u2019 and a true believer in his innocence, I saw no other media present.<\/p>\n Roberts, the last man standing in the sinkhole, has fallen from the front page to the footnotes to the forgotten. Which is what happens in this town, where the arms are long and the memories are short.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll be fine,\u201d Kinkeade told him. \u201cDo something good so I can read about it in the paper.\u201d Before Roberts was free to go, the judge told him, \u201cNo reason to send you to jail at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n