GUILTY MO - Jill LaRose, 30, found murdered, St Charles, 24 June 2009

March 29, 2011 - Trial underway today.

Aaron J. LaRose, 34, formerly of the 900 block of Shur Lee Lane in Dittmer, is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of Jill LaRose, 30, of St. Charles County. Her body was found in a drainage ditch on Dalbow Road on June 24, 2009, just hours after a divorce hearing.

Assistant prosecutor Philip Groenweghe said the evidence against Aaron LaRose will include DNA -- both his and his wife's -- found on the bottom of the shoes he wore that day and on ropes found at the crime scene. Medical examiners have said stab wounds caused her death.

Groenweghe also said prosecutors would present evidence that LaRose had threatened his wife with messages such as "'til death do us part."

When Groenweghe pointed at LaRose and said he was responsible, the defendant shook his head.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/stcharles/article_9dc9d9ea-5a1f-11e0-a36d-0017a4a78c22.html

ST. CHARLES COUNTY • Jill LaRose went to her divorce hearing alone to show she could stand up to her husband.

Dodson said he remembered Jill LaRose being shaken the day of the divorce hearing on June 24. She had told him that Aaron LaRose pulled up beside her in the Bass Pro Shops parking lot in St. Charles that morning, and he had tried to talk to her several times during the hearing.

But Jill LaRose also dropped a protection order against her husband that day, Dodson said, in part because she wanted him to have access to their children, ages 12, 9 and 4.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/stcharles/article_333a16eb-d7c3-5ec0-b42c-24cd3f5f9acd.html

What could his defense be? I guess they all claim not guilty. They have so much evidence against this guy. Below is from the link above.

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Assistant prosecutor Philip Groenweghe said police found shoe prints at the crime scene that were consistent with the treads on the shoes Aaron LaRose wore the day of the divorce hearing. He also said blood found on LaRose's shoes matched his and his wife's DNA. So did blood on ropes found at the crime scene that police say were used to choke Jill LaRose.

ST. CHARLES COUNTY • Jurors began deliberating at 2:32 p.m. today in the murder case against a man accused of killing his estranged wife.

Aaron J. LaRose, 34, formerly of Dittmer, is accused of killing Jill LaRose, 30, on June 24, 2009, after their divorce hearing at the St. Charles County Courthouse.

Assistant prosecutor Laura Whitlow said Aaron LaRose called his wife incessantly, sometimes more than 160 times per day, in the months before her murder, often leaving threatening messages. But on the day of the divorce hearing, she said, he left his cell phone at home and brought a knife, two lengths of rope and a key to her Dodge Neon with him.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/stcharles/article_f56b57e8-5c9d-11e0-b304-001a4bcf6878.html

The jury took about 6½ hours to reach its verdict. As it was read, LaRose dropped his head.

Afterward, Anna Kelley, Jill LaRose's mother, said, "We want to thank God for answered prayers that (Aaron) didn't get by with doing this to her."

Amber Keys, one of Jill LaRose's sisters, said she believed saved voice mails may have helped jurors reach their verdict.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...cle_bb1cab5a-4661-551f-9f01-34c759ba28f9.html

In a two-hour hearing Thursday, Aaron LaRose criticized his attorneys, prosecutors and the judge who presided over his trial. He filed several motions in the last week asking for a new trial, as well as for the attorneys on both sides and the judge to recuse themselves. He said the state had failed to prove its case and should have done more DNA testing to identify others who might have killed his wife.

"The state presented nothing but made-up theories to the jury," he said.

Circuit Judge Nancy Schneider denied his requests


Because prosecutors did not seek the death penalty, the only punishment for first-degree murder in this case was life in prison without the possibility of parole. Assistant prosecutor Philip Groenweghe asked for a consecutive sentence of 30 years in prison for the armed criminal action charge — one year for each year of Jill LaRose's life.

Schneider followed the recommendation.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/stcharles/article_1d1da189-4f41-5d11-811b-52626f37c201.html