Background: The Bulloch County Jail building in Statesboro, Ga. (Google Maps). Insets (left to right): Robert Brandon Keller before he removed his eyeballs and after (Bulloch County Sheriff”s Office).
AÂ Â Georgia man charged with murder was ruled competent to stand trial after he removed his own eyeballs while in custody.
Robert Brandon Keller, 32, is facing trial in connection with the death of 43-year-old Bruce Dupree, whose body was found on the side of an interstate in Georgia’s Bulloch County on Oct. 14, 2024. He was suffering from multiple stab wounds, according to reporting by the Statesboro Herald at the time, and was pronounced dead shortly after he was found.
Police said Keller was tracked down and arrested after an employee at a Pojo’s saw him with “blood on his hands” and “blood on the cash he paid with.”
Keller was booked into the Bulloch County Jail on two counts of murder, armed robbery, hijacking a motor vehicle, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, and possession of a firearm or knife in the commission of a felony. He was repeatedly denied bond as his case progressed.
According to court documents obtained by Law&Crime, Keller removed both of his eyes and “[bit] off a portion of his tongue” while he was in custody. A competency hearing was ordered, and two psychologists, Dr. Jeremy Gay and Dr. Daniel Fass, conducted an interview with Keller to evaluate his criminal responsibility.
Both doctors concluded that despite Keller’s dramatic acts of self-harm, he was competent to stand trial. Gay and Fass stated that the disturbing nature of the self-mutilation “happened after the alleged criminal activity.” Dr. Gay stated that Keller “was not suffering from either a delusional compulsion at the time of the crime or an inability to distinguish right and wrong at the time of the crime.”
Dr. Fass also stated that when he evaluated Keller in April 2025, the murder suspect did not show “symptoms of a severe, persistent medical illness like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.” He went as far as to say that Keller’s “intellectual functioning” and ability to answer questions in court “were much better than a lot of the people he evaluates.”
According to the documents, two jailers who testified at the competency hearing on Jan. 27 said Keller told them “he was not mental, and that he said he heard voices to cover his ass.”
Dr. Gay and Dr. Fass ruled that Keller was competent to stand trial in an order filed on Feb. 10. His trial date has not yet been scheduled.
