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A plea deal that would have capped the potential sentence for Cathleen “Kit” Roth at 28 years for her role in the murder of a Chelwood Elementary School teacher in 2009 got an emphatic thumbs down Thursday in state District Court.
Charles Brown, presiding criminal division judge in the 2nd Judicial District Court, said he could not in good faith accept the same plea for Roth, whom he views as having engineered the murder of her mother-in-law Ellen Roth, as the man who strangled her.
Brown has taken pleas and sentenced other defendants in the case, including James Robert Johnson, the hands-on killer who is now in state prison in Santa Rosa, Christopher Donovan and Bella Gonzales.
“I’m not going to accept this plea. None of this could have happened if she had not allowed a person to lie in wait,” he said.
Ellen Roth, 61, disappeared in early May 2009 and was reported missing after failing to show up for school. Police suspected Roth’s son, Bryan, who had a juvenile record, a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and a history of threats to kill his mother. But Bryan Roth, Ellen Roth’s adopted son, was in jail for a probation violation at the time she disappeared.
Cathleen “Kit” Roth appears in court, where a district judge rejected a plea deal that would have capped her sentence at 28 years for her part in the murder of her mother-in-law. (GREG SORBER/JOURNAL)
After getting a tip, police began looking at Kit Roth, who reportedly was angry about Bryan’s incarceration and had said “Ellen has to die,” to her friends.
Donovan told police about Kit Roth and Johnson planning the killing. Police reports said Kit Roth and Johnson sneaked into the teacher’s garage at night to lay in wait, and Johnson strangled her as she was on her way to school. The two wrapped the body in a tarp and took it to a friend’s house before burying it in the mountains.
Assistant District Attorney Judith Faviell told Brown on Thursday the negotiated plea would make Kit Roth’s plea and sentence comparable to Johnson’s – 28 years maximum although the charges of second-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, six counts of tampering with evidence, and larceny actually added up to more time.
Kit Roth’s attorney, Jean McCray, said her client had been found incompetent and spent 14 months at the New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute in Las Vegas, N.M., being treated, in part, for auditory hallucinations.
When Brown said the hospital records didn’t reflect that, McCray responded that it was because Kit Roth had started getting treatment, including medications, while still in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center.
McCray said Roth’s co-defendants had benefited “from trying to blame my client. My professional opinion from having handled a number of these cases over my career (is that) the Roth family is trying to demonize Ms. Roth. My client did not take the physical act” of killing Ellen Roth.
She said her client’s intelligence, ability to speak well and embarrassment about her illness led Kit Roth to hide her mental illness. McCray asked to be able to submit psychological reports to the court, though Brown wasn’t encouraging.
Brown said that as a former prosecutor familiar with plea deals, “I know sometimes you have to dance with the devil because that’s the only partner you can get.” But he remained steadfast in his rejection of the plea “at this point,” sending parties back to the negotiating table.
— This article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal
-- Email the reporter at ssandlin@abqjournal.com. Call the reporter at 505-823-3568
