Man sentenced to life in murder of ex-wife
Nearly five years after he was charged with fatally stabbing his ex-wife outside his Grove City apartment, Jeremy Roberts has recovered enough from his mental illness to take responsibility for the slaying.
Roberts, 43, was sentenced Monday to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years after pleading guilty to aggravated murder in the death of Candice R. Roberts.
The sentence, imposed by Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Jenifer French, was recommended by prosecuting and defense attorneys as part of a plea agreement.
The guilty plea comes after years of psychological examinations and court rulings that found Roberts incompetent to stand trial because severe mental illness rendered him unable to understand the charges against him or assist in his defense.
For most of those years, he has been held at Twin Valley Behavioral Healthcare, a state psychiatric hospital on the Hilltop, for treatment aimed at restoring his competence.
In January 2016, French ruled that he had become competent and could face trial. That ruling was followed by additional psychological examinations after defense attorney Robert Krapenc filed a notguilty-by-reason-of-insanity plea for Roberts.
Examinations by two psychologists found that although Roberts was mentally ill, he understood the difference between right and wrong at the time of the stabbing, which led to the plea.
He was arrested after the couple’s then 13-year-old son called 911 on June 10, 2012, and told a dispatcher, “My dad just killed my mom. ... She’s laying in the grass in front of our apartment.”
Grove City police found Candice Roberts, 36, in the front yard of the Townhouse Drive apartment with a knife in her chest, said Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer Rausch. She had been attacked when she arrived at the apartment to pick up their two youngest children.
The couple’s then 4-yearold daughter also was at the apartment. Another daughter, then 16, wasn’t home at the time of the stabbing. The couple divorced in 2010, records show.
Roberts declined to make a statement in court, but he heard comments from the victim’s mother and father before sentencing.
“You had no right to decide to take a life, especially the mother of your children,” said her mother, Claudia Myers. “I don’t care what you think she did to deserve this ... You are not God.”
After the hearing, Krapenc said the Ohio criminal justice system is “ill-equipped to deal with defendants who have these kinds of mental-health problems. We should have a finding of guilty but mentally ill.
“Instead of prison, you are sent somewhere for treatment. Prison is a horrible place for anybody, let alone someone with mental-health challenges.”