DOB: 08-20-1963 DOC#: 902303 White Male
Lake County Superior Court
Judge James L.
Clement
Prosecutor: Joseph L. Curosh, Jr.
Defense: Noah L. Holcomb, Jr.
Date of Murder: May 10, 1990
Victim(s): Ernest Graves W/M/25 Daniel Brown W/M/22 (Acquaintances of Roche)
Method of Murder: shooting with .38 Derringer and .22 rifle
Summary: Edward Nicksich suspected Ernest Graves of stealing $120 worth of food stamps from his girlfriend. He and Roche, Jr. arranged a phoney drug deal and lured Ernest Graves and his friend Daniel Brown to the basement of Roche, Jr.'s home. Roche, Jr. came upstairs and remarked to his girlfriend that there were two men downstairs that he was going to shoot because they owed someone $120. He retrieved a .38 derringer and a .22 rifle and went back downstairs. Nine bullets were later recovered from the victim's bodies. Four of the bullets were found to have come from the derringer owned by Roche, Jr. This meant that he had to reload at least three times. After the shots, Roche, Jr., Roche, Sr., and Nicksich came upstairs and they shared a bag of cocaine taken from the victims. They used the car of Roche, Jr.'s girlfriend to remove and dispose of the bodies. Roche and Nicksich admitted to friends that each of them had shot one of the victims. Roche testified at trial that he shot both men while acting in self-defense.
Trial: Information/PC for Murder filed (05-16-90); Amended Information for DP filed (07-26-90); Voir Dire (10-29-90); Jury Trial (10-30-90, 10-31-90, 11-01-90, 11-02-90, 11-05-90, 11-06-90, 11-07-90); Feliberations 3 hours, 35 minutes; Verdict (11-07-90); DP Trial (11-08-90, 11-09-90) Deliberations 7 hours, 40 minutes; Verdict (11-09-90); Court Sentencing (11-30-90).
Conviction: Murder,
Murder, Felony-Murder, Felony-Murder
(Roche was tried jointly with John
Nicksich. The jury returned a verdict against a Death
Sentence for Nicksich and was hung on Death Sentence for
Roche. John Roche, Sr. was tried separately)
Sentencing: November 30,
1990 Death Sentence (Roche) 40 years, 40 years consecutive (Nicksich)
Aggravating Circumstances:
b (1) Robbery, 2 murders
Mitigating Circumstances: no significant prior criminal record, hung jury in death phase, traumatic childhood, psychiatric treatment during puberty, drug and alcohol addiction, accomplice was catalyst
Direct Appeal:
Roche v. State, 596 N.E.2d 896 (Ind. July 20, 1992)
Conviction Affirmed 5-0 DP Affirmed 5-0
Givan Opinion: Shepard, Dickson, Debruler, Krahulik concur.
Hung Jury on Death Sentence
PCR:
PCR Petition filed 10-21-93. PCR denied 02-28-96 by Special Judge Richard J. Conroy 02-28-96.
Roche v. State, 690 N.E.2d 1115 (Ind. 1997)
Affirmed 5-0 Sullivan Opinion; Shepard, Dickson, Selby, Boehm concur.
12-23-97 Pro Se Motion to Waive all appeals
01-28-97 Competency Hearing held in PCR Court; Roche found competent to
waive appeals.
(Roche was later convicted in LaPorte County of an attempted escape attempt, and has since sought to waive all appeals in both cases, asking that the death sentence be carried out immediately)
Habeas:
Next Friend Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus filed 07-07-98 in U.S. District Court, Northern District of Indiana. (Adopted by Roche January 2000).
02-06-01 Writ conditionally granted by U.S. District Court Judge Allen Sharp.
Roche v. Anderson, 132 F.Supp.2d 688 (N.D.Ind. February 6, 2001)
(Order of Judge Allen Sharp, United States District Court, Northern District of Indiana, granting Writ of Habeas Corpus conditioned upon resentencing to life without parole - Ineffective assistance of counsel for failure to object to shackling of defendant during trial.)
Roche v. Davis, 291 F.3d 473(7th Cir. May 28, 2002)
(Cross appeals of granting habeas as to death sentence, not as to conviction; Affirmed 3-0, except that case remanded for new sentencing hearing since Life Without Parole was not an option at original sentencing)
Opinion by Judge Michael S. Kanne, Judge John L. Coffey and Judge Ilana Diamond Rovner.
Davis v. Roche, 123 S.Ct. 649 (December 2, 2002) (Motion to Allow Belated Writ denied)
§ 1983:
Roche v. Adkins, 998 F.2d 1016 (7th Cir. May 14, 1993) (Unpublished).
(Civil rights action against warden for requiring Roche to drink from only wax coated dixie cups. Dismissed - “The fact that he was required to drink beverages from a wax covered Dixie cup simply does not implicate the constitution.”)
Roche v. State, 699 N.E.2d 752 (Ind. September 22, 1998).
(Direct appeal of 45 year sentence for Attempted Murder of prison guard in LaPorte County, after Roche and 3 others attempted escape in 1994; REVERSED due to admission of prior bad acts as prisoner. On 06-18-99 Roche was convicted of Attempted Aggravated Battery and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.)
As of July 1, 2006