PORTLAND, Maine — The Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday unanimously upheld the murder conviction of a Bangor woman serving a 50-year sentence for the brutal slaying of her husband in the couple’s bathtub.
The court rejected arguments made by Roxanne Jeskey’s attorneys that she deserved a new trial because her untreated psychotic state hindered her ability to assist them at trial, that she was not guilty of the crime by reason of insanity or was guilty of manslaughter rather than murder.
The justices had heard oral arguments in May at the Penobscot Judicial Center.
“We conclude that the court did not err in determining that the state proved beyond a reasonable doubt every element of both knowing or intentional murder and depraved indifference murder,” Justice Thomas Humphrey wrote for the unanimous, seven-member court in a 33-page decision. “We also conclude that the court did not err in determining that her defense of not guilty by reason of insanity was not supported by the evidence.
Humphrey’s ruling went on to say that “there was no rational basis” for finding Jeskey was guilty of the lesser offense of manslaughter. Finally, the court did not abuse its discretion in denying [Jeskey’s] motion for a new trial despite her allegedly improved psychological state.”
Jeskey’s attorneys, Joseph Baldacci and David Bate, both of Bangor, are considering appealing the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, Bate said Tuesday in an email.
“It is disappointing that the law court does not recognize a fairness issue when defense counsel are advising the trial justice that their client is actively psychotic and obviously needs medication,” Bate said. “Instead of ordering an evaluation, the trial court unnecessarily forged on through trial, only after which the jail medicated the defendant and her mental condition was restored to such an extent that she would have opted to testify. That irony smacks of unfairness, and unfairness goes to the heart of our due process guarantees.”
Maine Assistant Attorney General Donald Macomber, who argued against Jeskey’s appeal, praised Tuesday’s ruling.
“The law court thoroughly reviewed all of Ms. Jeskey’s claims and found them wanting,” he said in an email. “She knew exactly what she was doing when she killed her husband.”
Jeskey, 53, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the murder charge but twice was found competent to stand trial. Her jury-waived trial was held before Superior Court Justice E. Allen Hunter in December and January 2014 in Bangor. She was found guilty May 30, 2014, of intentional and knowing murder and depraved indifference murder.
Richard Jeskey, 53, of Bangor suffered extensive multiple blunt and sharp force injuries to the head, neck, torso, limbs and genitalia. He also was strangled with sufficient force to break his neck.
Hunter concluded the injuries were inflicted with a plastic baseball bat, razor, wooden and metal rods from broken towel racks, a pair of needle-nosed pliers and perhaps other implements. In announcing the verdict, the judge called the attack “monstrous.”
Her earliest possible release date from the Maine Correctional Center in Windham is Oct. 23, 2054, according to the Department of Corrections.