New Albany man sentenced to 68 years for murder

Clark County

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January 17, 2012

Prosecutor: Maximum sentence appropriate for ‘heinous crime’

By MATT THACKER Matt.Thacker@newsandtribune.com The News and Tribune Tue Jan 17, 2012, 03:58 PM EST

JEFFERSONVILLE — A New Albany man was sentenced to 68 years in prison for murdering his estranged wife and assaulting three people who tried to help her.

Joseph L. Roche, 44, pleaded guilty to all charges Dec. 13. At a hearing Tuesday, Clark County Circuit Court No. 1 Judge Dan Moore sentenced Roche to 65 years for murder and one year for each count of class A misdemeanor battery.

According to Clark County Sheriff’s Department Detective Harold Kramer, Roche beat his estranged wife, 46-year-old Brenda Roche, in the head with a 28-pound rock Aug. 2 at their daughter’s house in the 800 block of Orchard Street in Memphis. Kramer said the couple began fighting when Brenda Roche accused her husband of cheating on her.

“I take responsibility for the pain, hurt and suffering,” Roche said at the hearing. “It was senseless.”

Roche said he was part of their family for 11 years and said he will feel guilty the rest of his life.

“It will be with me every day,” he said.

Clark County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Jeremy Mull spoke on behalf of the victim’s family at the hearing. He said family members talked to him about the “gravity of the loss” and “indescribable pain” they had endured.

Mull said many defendants express remorse at sentencing hearings.

“He may or may not be sorry for what he did,” Mull said. “This was a heinous crime. To get the maximum sentence he could was appropriate.”

Clark County Public Defender Jeff Stonebraker asked for the judge to consider Roche’s plea as a mitigating factor. Stonebraker said he and attorney Jennifer Culotta met Roche in jail, and the defendant asked them, “Do we have to do this?” They told him the only way to avoid trial would be to accept a blind plea, which he agreed to do.

Stonebraker said allowing the family to avoid going through a painful trial was the last thing he could do for them.

“This was his opportunity to allow that closure,” he said.

He told the judge Roche saved jurors from being forced to listen to the details of the murder just days before the holidays.

Moore said he took into consideration Roche’s plea, but that it could not erase the fact that there was no justification for the “brutal act.”

Following the hearing, Brenda Roche’s longtime friend, Ruby Geary, spoke on behalf of the family.

“I wanted to sit behind [Joseph Roche] because I didn’t want to see him in the face,” she said.

Geary was one of the three people assaulted the night of the murder. She was called to the home during the altercation and was the last person to see Brenda Roche. She recalled the pain of trying to describe the scene to the victim’s family.

Geary said Joseph Roche confronted her when she arrived and she said she wanted to take Brenda Roche and her daughter. She said Roche responded that he had already killed his wife and would kill her too.

She hopes Roche is not granted any type of early release.

“I don’t want him to hurt anyone else,” she said.

According to court records, Roche was convicted in Kentucky in 1995 of manslaughter and burglary for reportedly shooting his partner during a residential break-in. He was granted parole in 2001. He also has misdemeanor convictions in Floyd County.