Roache Gets Life In Decapitation Case

Dennis George Roache was found guilty Friday of killing and decapitating his ex-girlfriend's lover in 2002 and sentenced to life without parole.

Defense attorneys will file a motion for retrial on Oct. 14.

Roache was charged with killing 18-year-old Gregory Shannon in February 2002 in St. Petersburg.

Shannon was the lover of Roache's ex-girlfriend, Monique Nichole Pennywell, police say.

Roache killed Shannon in a jealous rage, then cut his head off, put it on a car hood and held a mirror up to it, prosecutors say.

His public defenders, Violet Assaid and Ron Eide, presented an insanity defense based on Roache's history.

He has been committed to a state mental facility twice.

"We are not offering an excuse," Eide said in court. "What we are trying to do is to offer an explanation."

Defense attorneys repeatedly said Roache is criminally insane because of biological and genetic mental defects.

Jill Poorman, a psychologist who testified for the defense, said Roache is one of the most disturbed individuals she has met.

Eide said the defendant heard voices that commanded his actions.

"This is a very, very sick man," he said.

Prosecutors Rene Bauer and Richard Ripplinger didn't question Roache's diagnosis but argued Roache slaughtered Shannon in the heat of jealousy, not insanity.

"This case is about the premeditated murder of Gregory Shannon," Bauer said in her closing statement.

Roache had threatened Shannon at a Social Security office about a week before the slaying, Bauer said.

"This isn't about voices in his head," Ripplinger said. "It is about what he had in his heart for Monique Pennywell."

At the end of the trial, Judge Robert J. Morris thanked the jurors for their service.

"It was a long and difficult case," he said.

Ripplinger was satisfied with the ending of a nearly two-week contest.

"A lot of people in the community will breathe a sign of relief," he said.