commentary by Patrick H. Moore
Roxanne Jeskey of Bangor, Maine has just been sentenced to 50 years in prison following a bench trial for the brutal 2011 bathtub murder of her 51-year-old husband Richard Jeskey. There are two sides to this story. On the one hand, at the time of the slaying, Ms. Jeskey was mentally impaired due to a combination of factors resulting from mental deterioration following brain surgery for a chronic seizure disorder. In addition, she suffered from a number of other serious, diagnosable mental infirmities which resulted in her pleading not guilty by reason of insanity.
On the other hand, the murder was incredibly savage and included a variety of bizarre and fiendish tortures. At some point, after the crime, Ms. Jeskey apparently confessed to at least some of her disturbing actions.
In arriving at the 50-year sentence, Superior Court Justice E. Allen Hunter appears to have been influenced far more by the savage nature of the crime than by Ms. Jeskey rather obvious mental deficiencies.
In defending his decision, the judge said he was imposing what is, in effect, a life sentence because the “monstrous way” Roxanne Jeskey murdered her 53-year-old husband was tantamount to torture and involved a sexual assault. He said the mitigating factors — including the fact that she has no criminal history, underwent brain surgery a decade ago that left her with cognitive difficulties, and her mental health problems — called for a sentence of 50 years.
At the bench trial, neuropsychologist Dr. Richard Doiron testified he conducted a number of tests on Roxanne Jeskey after she was arrested for the murder of her 51-year-old husband Richard Jeskey in June of 2011.
The doctor stated that the tests provided a “valid and reliable measure of what she was able to do at that time” of the murder.
Prior to her operation in 2003, Ms. Jeskey suffered from seizures that could not be controlled with medication. Hence, her doctors opted to perform brain surgery which – as is apparently sometimes the case – resulted in post-operative mental functioning consistent with borderline retardation. Dr Doiron stated: “She is brain injured in a significant way consistent with her neurological history.”
Jeskey scored very poorly on cognitive tests. The doctor stated that she is an individual who formerly, i.e., prior to her brain surgery, functioned at a significantly higher level than that at which she now functions.
In addition, Dr. Doiron diagnosed Jeskey with PTSD from incidents in her childhood, a cognitive disorder because of the brain surgery, and schizophrenia. Unsurprisingly, this combination of “brain handicaps” resulted, according to the doctor, in an altered sense of reality.
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As is so often the case in American jurisprudence in the present era, the judge appears to have been far more influenced by the crime itself than by the forces (her brain damage), that led her to commit the crime.
After listening to the testimony, Judge Hunter found Ms. Jeskey guilty on May 30th of intentional and knowing murder and depraved indifference murder in connection with the death. The “depraved indifference” conviction stems from the following alleged actions on Ms. Jeskey’s part, who was reportedly furious because she caught her husband Richard texting his ex girlfriend.
After Richard’s indiscretion was discovered, the pair apparently argued heatedly which, in essence, culminated in the wife going berserk and torturing him for hours as she slowly killed him, after which she phoned the police to report what had happened.
Peter Kotz of True Crime Report writes:
He was found bloody and brutally beaten in the bathtub. His entire body showed signs of massive trauma.
Wrote Detective David Bushey in an affidavit: “These included nose fractures, loss of an eye, rib fractures, rectal incised wounds, and internal hemmorhage from an instrument(s) pushed through his scrotum into his abdomen. Further, Mr. Jeskey was strangled with sufficient force to break the hyoid bone of his neck.”
Roxanne admitted she’d slashed him with a box cutter and beat him with a baseball bat. She’d also taken a pliers to his (testicles). Then she lay down for a nap before finally being sufficiently rested to deal with police and medics.
She said her husband had tried repeatedly to get himself out of the bathtub, only to fall and smack his head multiple times. By the time police arrived, he was already dead.
Hunter said in his written verdict that he found the testimony of Dr. Michael Ferenc, former deputy medical examiner, “compelling.”
At the trial, the M.E. testified that “Richard Jeskey died of strangulation and multiple traumatic injuries that resulted in a great loss of blood. He said the victim had bruises, cuts, scrapes and puncture wounds over all of his body. In addition, his nose and three ribs were broken.”
Richard Jeskey also suffered internal and external damage to his genitals, and. of course, the incisions.
The fact that Richard Jeskey apparently could not defend himself may have been cause by his blood alcohol level of .12 percent and a sleep aid that was found in his bloodstream. According to the M.E., the sleep aid and the alcohol would have caused him to be “drowsy, sleepy and, if unconscious, difficult to arouse.
Dr. Ference did not estimate a time of death but said that the victim had lost so much blood that there was almost none found in his heart during the autopsy.
“Any one of these injuries standing alone manifests a depraved indifference to the value of human life,” Judge Hunter said. “Taken together, they reflect a monstrous savagery and cruelty that defies comprehension.”
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Based on the police reports, the autopsy reports and Ms. Jeskey’s own admissions, there is little doubt that this particular murder rises to an extreme level of depravity. It would also appear that there is no doubt that the defendant needs to be removed from society for a considerable period of time.
Shouldn’t the fact, however, that she was non compos mentis both at the time of the murder, and in general, result in her being locked away in a mental institution rather a state prison? Such a solution would seem far more appropriate given her deteriorated mental state at the time of the slaying. But that’s not the way we roll here in America in our present vengeance-driven legal climate.