Rosa sentenced to 55 years in wife’s murder

Nancy Rosa died bleeding and struggling on her living room floor, the victim of five gunshot wounds from a handgun.

Husband Joseph Rosa will die a ward of the Indiana Department of Correction for firing those shots.

On Tuesday morning, Putnam Circuit Court Judge Matthew Headley sentenced Joseph Rosa, a retired Indiana Conservation Officer who up until May 14, 2023 shared a Madison Township residence with Nancy, to 55 years in prison for the crime of murder.

Now 73 years old and in poor health, Rosa is almost certainly facing a life sentence. Headley acknowledged as much, even allowing reduced time for good behavior and 493 days already served,

“If you were to live through that, you would have to be about 120 by the time you were out of prison,” Headley said. “That will probably not happen based on your age and your life expectancy.”

The judge weighed aggravating factors presented by the State of Indiana, represented by Putnam County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Austin Malayer, as well as mitigating factors from public defender Todd Meyer, before rendering the state advisory sentence length, which fell right in between the requests of 65 years from the prosecution and 45 from the defense.

In sentencing Rosa, who had earlier agreed to enter a guilty plea for the crime, to the advisory sentence, Headley specifically addressed some of the factors of the case.

“I would agree with the state that you didn’t really plead guilty, that you just acknowledged that based on the evidence, you would be found guilty,” the judge said.

And although Meyer listed Rosa’s background in the military and later law enforcement as reasons for leniency, Headley saw the opposite.

“You knew the damage that could be caused by a firearm, let alone five shots from a larger caliber handgun,” the judge told the defendant.

Lack of remorse and a reported history of at least verbal abuse were among the pillars of the state’s case.

“He would have bursts of anger when I would ask something that he thought maybe I should already know the answer or when I would ask how he felt,” Putnam County Chief Deputy Probation Officer Garret Nichols said of his pre-sentence investigation. “There were times he would become very angry with my questions. When I would ask him about the offense or give him the opportunity he would make a sound like ‘pfft’ and raise his shoulders.”

Putnam County Sheriff’s Office Detective Doug Nally reported seeing no remorse from Rosa on the day his wife’s body was discovered.

“No remorse. Not really upset. More confused,” Nally said. “He acted to me as if he really just didn’t recall anything.”

Kari Plessinger, who serves as the investigator for the prosecutor’s office, said she has listened to all of the recorded calls Rosa has made to his sister from the jail, and he has shown no remorse in these instances either. She cited instances in which Rosa made comments about Nancy’s weight or talked about her maxing out his credit cards.

In one particular call, his sister said she couldn’t imagine that he had carried out the crime as authorities said.

“Well, she stole $130,000 in credit cards. Is that reason enough?” Plessinger said Rosa responded with a laugh.

Jo Lynn Pendleton, Nancy’s sister, addressed Rosa directly when she took the stand.

“If it was so contentious all these years, why didn’t you just divorce her?” Pendelton asked. “Or better yet just shoot yourself?”

Pendleton said she knew Rosa had been verbally abusive to her sister, but if she would have had any idea about physical violence, which she later found detailed in Nancy’s day planner, the family would have gotten her out of the situation.

Perhaps most damning for Rosa, though, was the evidence that Nancy’s death involved struggle.

Nally said that upon entering the house, it was clear that everything happened in the living room, but in more than one area of the living room. She had gunshot wounds to her chest, neck, leg, back and arm, the last of which indicated she was trying to protect herself.

“At the very least, Nancy was at least awake and somewhat fighting back to that event,” Nally said.

The veteran detective also reported that in the initial investigation, Rosa said he usually slept in a recliner in the living room, just feet from where the body was found. That night — after the shooting is believed to have happened — Joseph said he chose to sleep in one of the bedrooms instead.

“I would imagine that no one would be able to sleep in that recliner with her body laying there,” Nally said.

When the time came, the defense called no witnesses.

“The defense has no witnesses, and in speaking with Mr. Rosa, he would politely decline making an allocution statement,” Meyer said.

Malayer later seized upon this.

“I cannot tell you exactly what happened that night. There’s only one person in here who can do that, and he’s too much of a coward to admit it,” Malayer said.

“Nancy lived out a nightmare in her final minutes,” he added later. “It would’ve been filled with unimaginable terror and pain. There really aren’t words to express that kind of evil and cowardice.”

Meyer’s arguments really only offered reasons to mitigate the sentence, with examples such as no violent criminal history, saving the state the trouble of proving his guilt and that incarceration would cause “undue hardship” on an aging and infirm man. He even said the guilty plea would have come sooner if not for delays on the part of the State of Indiana.

“Much of the delay in this case is due to a delay in the forensic testing,” Meyer said. “It was not done in an efficient manner.”

Such arguments seemed to hold little sway with the judge.

“You’re going to serve the next 55 years, though you might get some credit for good time, in the Department of Correction for the crime of murder,” Headley concluded.