GUILTY WI - Serenity Rose, 11 mos, brutally murdered, Kenosha, 18 Nov 2014

Officers arrived and surrounded an apartment in the home while rescue personnel attended to a 27-year-old woman and her 11-month-old daughter.

The mother and daughter were taken to Kenosha Hospital where the infant was pronounced dead. The Kenosha County Medical Examiner's Office said the baby's cause of death was multiple blunt force injuries.

"This is the most violent child death I've been involved with," Kenosha Police Chief John Morrissey said.

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An autopsy performed Wednesday revealed the child died from multiple blunt force injuries including several skull fractures. Charges against the father, identified as 34-year-old Russell Lamar Rose, are pending.

"The words that I would like to say about this individual are probably not fit for the media," Morrissey said, "so I'm simply going to refer to him as a monster"...

Morrissey said the witnesses told police they saw Rose hold Serenity over his head and drop her to the ground... The child was found lifeless, badly bruised and bloody, Morrissey said. Her face was partially disfigured.

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Police say Russell L. Rose Jr. tried killing April Lampy on Nov. 18, the day he is accused of killing 11-month-old Serenity by repeatedly throwing her to the ground outside their home in the 5000 block of 21st Avenue.

He was in court Friday for a preliminary hearing on the seven charges against him: first-degree intentional homicide for Serenity’s death, attempted first-degree intentional homicide for the attack on Lampy, aggravated battery, strangulation, false imprisonment, arson and first-degree recklessly endangering safety.

When police arrived at the scene on Nov. 18, Lampy had fled to a nearby home with Serenity. She was badly injured and covered with blood, said Kenosha Police Detective Daniel DeJonge during his testimony Friday morning, and Serenity was dead.

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Rose withdrew a special plea that would have allowed him to argue in court that he was not guilty because of mental disease, often called an insanity plea. Instead, he entered a traditional not guilty plea...

Rose’s trial is scheduled for Oct. 26.

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Rose made several calls to 911 that evening. In the first one, he identified himself by name, gave his address, and then said, “I just killed my baby.” He threatened to blow up his building with grenades and told a dispatcher to keep the police outside his home...

Dispatcher Joan Zarletti testified that Rose “was just swearing at me,” and that he threatened to kill her and her family. He demanded to be transferred to a detective, something she was unable to do.

Detectives did speak with Rose later that day, after he was taken into custody and treated for injuries he sustained in the fire he is accused of setting in his home.

Detective Dan DeJonge said Rose told him that he intended to kill Serenity, saying, “Before the throne of God he sacrificed his daughter, Serenity Amethyst Rose,” and that he threw her to the ground “to keep her from the rest of us.”

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Rose was asked whether he killed the baby — and the complaint says he told police it was his intent to kill Serenity because he “wanted to rid her of the evil inside her, and destroy what he created, and save her from this world.”

The complaint says Rose admitted to killing his infant daughter.

Kenosha firefighters were able to extinguish the fire at the apartment building. The fire caused extensive visible damage to the lower apartment and basement.

The next day, police again spoke with Serenity’s mother.

The complaint says Serenity’s mother told police on November 18th, she went to work — taking Serenity with her. When she returned home, she says she and Rose got into an argument over the cleaning of a blanket, and the woman says Rose told her she was “dead to him.”

The complaint says later, another argument ensued, and the woman says Rose physically attacked her — hitting her, kicking her, holding her down, grabbing her hair, spitting in her face — even throwing Serenity into a playpen when she started to cry. The woman says Rose eventually picked up a knife and began swinging it towards her and Serenity.

When the opportunity presented itself, the woman told police she picked up Serenity and ran out the front door of the apartment — with Rose following. The complaint says Rose continued attacking the woman outside the apartment, and that’s when a neighbor approached — asking Rose what he was doing. That’s when the woman told police Rose slammed Serenity to the ground.

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Kenosha County Judge Bruce Schroeder called the death of the 11-month-old girl the "most ghastly crime" he's seen. Russell Rose Jr. was found guilty in October of all seven felony counts against him, including first-degree intentional homicide...

During sentencing Thursday Rose said he killed his daughter to protect her from the "evils of this world."

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"The defendant is a plain, violent, evil person and deserves the full wrath of this court. In fact judge, he should burn in hell for the rest of his life," said District Attorney Robert Zapf.

Rose then addressed the court, seeming to agree.

"I am a monster, and not because you human beings don't understand why I love my daughter so much that I would not allow her to suffer here on your planet, in your world," said Rose. "And I go happily to watch my football game at 7 o'clock when my Green Bay Packers smash the Lions."

Invoking football did not sit well with the judge.

"You're insane. In addition to that though, you are lonesome and wicked for what you have done," said Judge Bruce Schroeder. "And then to talk after depriving this innocent child of its life, that you would be talking about a football game speaks to the danger that you would pose to every person in every community anywhere on this earth."

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Rose had demanded a jury trial even though the evidence against him was overwhelming.
An insanity plea was withdrawn early in the case after a psychiatrist who examined Rose ruled that the evidence did not support such a finding.
The psychiatrist opined instead that Rose suffered from a "severe personality disturbance with poor emotional controls, behavioral impulsivity and concomitant rage."

The jury got a taste of those issues when they viewed videotaped interrogations of Rose that blended detailed accounts of events, moments of delusion and grandiosity, religious references and an assertion in which Rose declared himself to be god, saying he killed his daughter in order to "rid her of the evil inside of her."

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