Episode 188: Roxanne Jeskey
Roxanne and Richard, “Rick,” Jeskey resided in Bangor, Maine. The two shared an apartment and often looked after their young grandchildren. Rick was a full-time freight truck driver and Roxanne was a former licensed practical nurse, or LPN. In 2003, Roxanne had undergone a surgical procedure where her anterior right temporal lobe of her brain was cut out in an attempt to manage the significant seizures she experienced. As is the major risk of having brain surgery, especially brain surgery where part of the brain is removed, there can be some changes to personality.
Roxanne had started to have some cognitive changes and had become more impulsive, was having disorganized thinking and noticeable personality changes. In addition to becoming very impulsive, she was also quick to anger and had a low frustration tolerance. She also suffered from abuse in her childhood and likely had PTSD as a result, which was difficult in addition to the changes stemming from brain surgery.
On June 12th, 2011, Roxanne called her next door neighbors, also a married couple, and spoke to the wife at around 6:00 p.m. while the couple was eating dinner. They talked for a few minutes, the couple ate dinner and the wife fell asleep watching TV. Roughly an hour later, the wife woke up to the sound of loud banging and crashing coming from the Jeskey’s apartment. The wife called Roxanne, who said that everything was fine, but for the next several hours until around midnight the couple heard banging, slamming and thuds coming from the Jeskey’s apartment about every ten to twenty minutes.
The wife continued to call Roxanne to check in on her throughout the course of the next few hours while the banging was happening on and off, and Roxanne then told her that she and Rick were fighting because she found out he had been calling a former girlfriend. It was revealed later that Rick had called his former girlfriend twice on that evening, but Roxanne had taken his cellphone and called her multiple times. The wife thought that it was odd that Roxanne said they were fighting as the wife didn’t hear raised voices or yelling, and she had heard them arguing through the walls in the past. This time, she could only hear thumping and banging. Over the course of multiple phone calls throughout the next several hours, Roxanne admitted to the wife that she had taken a pickaxe to Rick’s motorcycle, causing significant damage and pulling out wires. She had also cut the brake lines. Roxanne also admitted to hitting Rick multiple times in the face with a plastic baseball bat, and later said Rick was intoxicated and kept falling on the floor to the point where his eye came out. She declined the neighbor’s multiple offers for help and calling an ambulance.
Roxanne called Rick’s supervisor at 2:30 a.m. to tell him that Rick was very sick and they were just coming home from having been in the hospital all day. The supervisor noted that the call was odd. At 8:30 a.m., Roxanne called 911 to report that she had found Rick in the bathtub, and he was unresponsive and not breathing. First responders and police arrived and noticed that Roxanne was acting erratically, telling officers she hit him with the baseball bat and they had fought all night and she had found Rick in the bathtub when she went to take a shower that morning. Roxanne then clutched at her chest as if she were having a heart attack and was brought to the hospital. She confided in a nurse that she hit Rick “again and again and again,” and told the wife who came to visit her that “she didn't do it," and she only wanted to "hurt him a little bit."
When police examined the apartment once Roxanne was at the hospital, they took in details of a horrific scene. Rick’s cellphone had been broken in half and placed on his chest. The shower curtain was ripped and there was a pair of needle-nose pliers and a razor without the blade on the bathroom counter. On the floor of the bathroom was a brown belt, a broken piece of a metal broom handle, a cigarette lighter, and a bent metal towel rod. There was blood all over the apartment, including on the floor, walls, the bathroom door, the carpet in the hallway, and on the toolbox in the bedroom closet. In the washing machine and laundry basket were soaking wet clothes and towels with blood stains.
Per the medical examiner, Rick suffered extensive injuries. He had a deep laceration to his nose, his nose was broken, he sustained a subarachnoid hemorrhage, multiple cuts and tear wounds to his forehead and scalp, and significant injuries around his eyes. The globe, or the rounded part of his left eye where the eye itself is, had been sliced so deeply that the fluid from within the eye had leaked out. There were puncture wounds to his arms later determined to be from being hit by pieces of a broken wooden towel rack that had exposed nails. His entire neck had severe bruising, his hyoid bone was fractured and there were small hemorrhages in his lips that indicated he was strangled. Rick also had three rib fractures, multiple injuries to his torso, and a burn to his left nipple. His penis had multiple bruises, punctures and lacerations, found later to be from the needle-nose pliers found in the bathroom. His scrotum had been injured when an object, later discovered to be the metal broom handle, was pushed into and through the scrotal sac up to the pelvic floor and to the small bowel that caused a tear. There were also cuts and abrasions to his anus. Rick had alcohol and sleeping pills in his system, but unfortunately this did not cause him to be unconscious during the torture he endured.
On June 22nd, 2011, Roxanne was charged with the intentional murder of Rick Jeskey. On June 24th, the State filed a motion for a forensic evaluation, stating, "The circumstances of the case strongly suggest that the defendant may have mental illness issues, including neuropsychological issues."
On July 27th, the grand jury came back with an indictment and charged Roxanne with one count of intentional or knowing and/or depraved indifference murder. In September, Roxanne pleaded not guilty at her arraignment. The court granted the state’s request for a forensic evaluation in late October. What followed was intense back and forth about Roxanne’s mental status, her mental state and whether she was competent to stand trial. After extensive psychiatric evaluation, two competency hearings with four expert witnesses, a prolonged recess from trial where Roxanne claimed she was not guilty by reason of insanity and was actively psychotic, Roxanne was deemed competent to stand trial.
A court order from May 30th, 2014, reported that Roxanne inflicted injuries upon Rick Jeskey that lead to his death, she intentionally tortured and hurt him, and did this all of her own free will. Therefore, she intentionally murdered Rick. For the murder charge on depraved indifference, the court reported that “Any one of the injuries standing alone manifests a depraved indifference to the value of human life. Taken together they reflect a monstrous savagery and cruelty that defies comprehension." The court also said that the murder was not criminally negligent manslaughter and there was no possibility of her acting in self defense as it was far beyond that. She was also a licensed practical nurse, so given her medical knowledge she knew what she was doing and did not once stop or try to get him help, instead turning down her neighbor’s multiple offers to call an ambulance.
The court entered their finding of a guilty verdict on May 30th, 2014. On June 9th, Roxanne filed a motion for a new trial, as she said it was unjust for her to be put through trial while she was actively psychotic. The motion was denied and she was sentenced to fifty years in prison on June 27th, 2014.
On January 8th, 2022, Roxanne died in prison at 8:35 p.m. in the presence of medical staff.
Image sources:
sunjournal.com - “Bangor woman sentenced to 50 years for murdering husband”