Episode 203: Steven Roy
Steven Roy lived in Fremont, New Hampshire and operated his business called “Wizard Software” out of the basement of his home. He was living in the home with his wife Maria Zarate and their children, and a woman named Joanna Kozak worked for Wizard Software as well and actually lived in the house with Steven and his family. As one could imagine, this caused some tension between Joanna and Maria. Another man named Charles Kelley, known as C.J. Kelley, was hired by Steven to work for Wizard Software to do odd jobs and help get things done.
On June 27th, 1992, Steven Roy and Joanna Kozak left the house to go for a ride on some nearby trails on dirt bikes. Steven returned from the ride alone and Joanna was nowhere to be found. When Maria asked about where Joanna went, Steven told her that she packed up all her stuff and moved out. He said she was “a fugitive from justice.” Later, however, Steven told his wife Maria that he had actually killed Joanna. He said that they went out for the dirt bike ride as planned, but then he bludgeoned her to death and proceeded to bury her body in an isolated cemetery. Her belongings were also disposed of. Steven’s other employee C.J. Kelley had helped him dispose of Joanna’s body and her belongings as well.
Several months after the murder in October of that same year, 1992, Maria decided she needed to leave Steven. She was at the Manchester, New Hampshire airport when she decided to anonymously called the Epping Police Department to report that a crime had been committed at the Scribner Cemetery in Raymond, New Hampshire. A month later, the FBI came knocking on Maria’s door to interview her about this case. On December 10th, 1992, Joanna’s body was found in the cemetery by the New Hampshire State Police. It was later revealed in court that Steven had cut off Joanna’s fingertips to avoid her being identified through her fingerprints and that he had covered the grave in pepper to prevent animals from digging up the remains.
On March 16th, 1993, police found C.J. Kelley and were given a statement where C.J. admitted that Steven killed Joanna and he helped bury her body. Thanks to this statement, C.J. was able to he indicted for his role in “assisting to conceal the murder."
Steven was finally arrested on April 12th, 1993 and charged with the first-degree murder of Joanna Kozak.
His trial began on October 26th, 1993. Maria Zarate was the State’s star witness as Steven had admitted to her that he murdered Joanna and disposed of her body and belongings. Steven’s defense team attempted to paint the picture that Steven was innocent and was being framed by Maria and C.J. and they were the ones who had murdered Joanna.
Right before his testimony, C.J. put his foot in his mouth and refused to testify, citing the 5th amendment. C.J. had realized that what he should have agreed to was to testify but only in exchange for his immunity. If he testified without that and said exactly what happened and his own role, he would likely be facing a harsh sentence himself. The state refused to grant immunity and despite all of the maneuvering on C.J.’s part with his refusal to testify, the defense brought his name into things anyways so they could try to pin the murder on him and Maria.
It was called into question during the trial the extent of C.J.’s involvement and whether or not he had helped bury Joanna's body or just helped dispose of her belongings. When this happened, the defense immediately attempted to move for a mistrial, which came as a shock to the rest of the court. The entire trial was then placed on a recess and when the proceedings began again days later, there were strict instructions for the jury to ignore the question of C.J.’s involvement.
After brief deliberation, Steven Roy was found guilty of the first-degree murder of Joanna Kozak. He immediately appealed, and when this was denied, he continued to appeal as often as he could. Steven’s usual arguments were surrounding the question asked regarding C.J.’s involvement in disposing of Joanna’s body, and he continued to fight and demand appeals over the years following his sentencing.
He appealed again in 1997, this time against a New Hampshire State Police Trooper named Robert Estabrook. Two women had come forward to police about Steven prior to the murder of Joanna, one being Dorothy Harris, an ex-girlfriend of Steven’s, and the other was a former nanny named Donna Taylor Blackburn. Alarmingly, Donna told Trooper Estabrook that Steven had shown her two fake driver's licenses that he had made himself, and she recalled possibly seeing shotguns or pellet guns in the pantry in the home. Steven tried to say that Trooper Estabrook told the two women to exaggerate or fabricate information about him to make him look bad, but Donna had told Trooper Estabrook something pretty damning she had seen while at the house.
Donna said she had accidentally walked into a room where Steven and his young daughter were, and she said that he was “cutting tissue” from his daughter’s vaginal area. Donna then said that she had been sexually assaulted after being placed against her will in handcuffs by C.J. while Steven watched. C.J. had also held her at gunpoint. Trooper Estabrook brought all of this information to the FBI, who had by this time recently been told by Maria about Steven’s involvement in Joanna’s murder. Donna also told police she had seen Joanna’s wallet stashed up in Steven’s attic after she “disappeared.”
Based on this evidence, police were able to obtain a search warrant. Trooper Estabrook learned that both Steven and C.J. had been convicted of felonies in the past, which gave police even more authority to search the home for guns. The warrant was for guns, ammunition, any type of technology or materials used with making fake ID’s, bloodstained items including clothing and anything belonging to Joanna. Police took into their possession a gun C.J. had that he used to threaten Donna, a bunch of computer equipment and Joanna’s wallet.
The day after the police came and seized these items, on November 26th, 1992, Steven was arraigned in the Exeter District Court and was charged with multiple crimes including aggravated felonious sexual assault of his daughter. The trial was set to begin on March 8th, 1993, but Donna wasn’t able to testify for an unknown but sudden reason. As she was the one who had walked in on the scene and witnessed it, the trial wasn’t able to happen without her testimony. As a result, Steven was released from custody for the sexual assault charges but was to be reindicted the following month in April for Joanna’s murder.
Steven filed yet another appeal in March of 2004, claiming he had been denied the right to confrontation, that he had ineffective counsel, that he was denied due process from the New Hampshire Supreme Court decisions and was denied due process based on the court's jury instructions for C.J.’s statement in the original trial. All four of these claims were closely examined and determined to carry no weight.
Steven Roy remains in prison for Joanna’s murder.
Image sources:
findagrave.com - “Joanna Kozak”