Jurors took just two hours Thursday to decide that Joshua Rocha was guilty of first-degree murder.
Rocha took 48 seconds to deliberately ambush North Kansas City Police Officer Daniel Vasquez during a traffic stop, choosing to kill him before he even reached Rocha’s window, Clay County prosecutors had alleged earlier during the three-day trial.
During closing arguments, in which Rocha admitted he murdered Vasquez, prosecutors told the jury that their only question was between first- and second-degree murder.
“He let this man walk to his doom,” assistant prosecuting attorney Robert Sanders said. “Officer Vasquez never had a chance. This was an ambush.”
Rocha watched impassively as all 12 jurors were polled by the judge. Vasquez's family members were shaking and crying as the verdict was read, then left the courtroom and sobbed.
Rocha, 28, was charged with first-degree murder in the July 2022 fatal shooting of Vasquez, who had stopped him for an expired license tag.
Jurors were shown dashcam video that showed Rocha shooting Vasquez in the face even before he arrived at his driver’s side door, stopping to clear his jammed AR-15, an automatic rifle, and then getting out of his car to shoot Vasquez two more times.
Prosecutors showed a point on the video tape where they said Rocha made the decision to pick up the weapon from the passenger side and hold it in his lap, even before he was stopped.
The 48 seconds from that decision to shooting Vasquez showed that Rocha chose deliberation and cool reflection, both of which are standards for first-degree murder, they said.
“Daniel goes down like a bag of cement,” assistant prosecuting attorney Spencer Curtis said as he brandished the murder weapon in front of the jury. “He chose to fire on him for nothing.”
Rocha appeared much different than when he was arrested: thinner, pallid and wearing a dark suit. Rocha did not look up once as footage of the murder played on screens in the courtroom.
Stephen Reynolds, Rocha’s attorney, admitted to the jury that Rocha killed Vasquez, calling it “senseless, inexcusable and horrifying.”
He had asked the jury to find Rocha guilty of second-degree murder, not first.
“Joshua Rocha is guilty of murder,” Reynolds said. “The only question for you is which one.”
Reynolds focused on Rocha’s surrender a little over three hours after the shooting, saying Rocha admitted to police that he shot because he feared losing his beige Ford Taurus, in which he sometimes slept.
Although Reynolds said he was homeless, prosecutors scoffed at that, saying he was trying to be the victim in the situation.
Jurors were shown video tape of Rocha’s interview with police the day of the shooting, in which Rocha said, “He walked up to the car and I shot him.” But immediately after the shooting, Rocha tossed his temporary tag out the window, tried to repaint his car, shaved his goatee and changed his clothes.
He told police he was trying to get away with it at first, but when asked specifically why he did it, he said, “I don’t know. I was not thinking.”
