LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A man who admits he beat his estranged wife to death with a rock learned his sentence Tuesday.
Joseph Roche got the maximum sentence possible for brutally murdering his wife, but friends and family of the victim say it is still not enough.
August 2nd was a nightmare for friends and family of Brenda Roche. "I called the police again, they had called police and called police and nobody was comin," said Ruby Geary, a friend of Brenda Roche.
She came to the rescue at Brenda's home in Memphis, Indiana, but it was too late. Joseph Roche had beaten his wife, Brenda, to death, using a large rock. "(He was) laughing that he'd already killed Brenda, now I'm going to kill you," said Geary, of her conversation with Joseph Roche on the scene.
He even beat Ruby, Brenda's daughter, and another man who were trying to intervene. Roche's attorneys say he spared the family more pain, by foregoing a trial, pleading guilty to all charges. But the judge says that doesn't outweigh his actions, or his criminal past, including a manslaughter conviction in the 1990s.
"This was a heinous crime," said Clark County Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jeremy Mull. "This lady was beaten to death, and just cut up in front of children, in front of her family. To get the maximum sentence on that crime was appropriate."
Amber Scholl watched her mother's brutal beating, and watched as justice was served Tuesday. Roche was sentenced to 68 years -- 65 for murder, and 3 years for other charges -- including battery against Geary.
Despite seeing Roche sentenced to prison, the family has not felt closure.
"We made a slideshow because that's all we had, it was a closed casket, there was nothing to grieve, nothing to close it out," said Geary.
Roche will be eligible for parole in 34 years.
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