Man Gets Life In Prison For Killing 48-Year-Old Woman, Dismembering Body
POSTED: Thursday, November 4, 2010
UPDATED: 9:04 pm EDT November 4, 2010
Timothy Rose pleaded guilty to killing his girlfriend, Jan Keller.
ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. -- The man accused of killing a Putnam County school teacher and dismembering her body pleaded guilty to first-degree murder Thursday.
Timothy Rose was sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing his girlfriend Jan Keller. As part of the plea agreement, Rose avoided the death penalty.
In court Thursday, Rose turned around and addressed Keller's family, saying, "I just want to tell people I'm truly sorry, and I know it won't bring nobody back. I'm having a hard time dealing with it, and I will pay for what I've done. I still can't remember a lot, but I am truly, truly sorry. And there's nothing else I can really say."
Rose then addressed his mother.
"To my mother: I love you. You were a good mother and you still are."
Moments later, Michael Dunn, Keller's brother, had to be silenced after delivering a profanity-laced outburst to the man who killed his sister.
"Tim, I just want to tell you you are a piece of (expletive)," Dunn said. "He's a monster, and he deserves to what he gets."
During the sentencing phase, a family member read a letter from Keller's 24-year-old daughter, saying, "I would love the opportunity to humiliate him and treat him like the worthless piece of garbage he has proven to be. I pray that every day he sits in a prison cell, he thinks of my mother and sees her face, along with the faces of every person he hurt."
Video: Victim's Family Angry, Frustrated
Rose was found unconscious in August in a St. Johns County house with the 48-year-old woman's dismembered body.
It took days to positively identify the elementary teacher after investigators discovered her body in the garage of the home. St. Johns County investigators said they also found body parts in several bags underground in an undeveloped area of the Samara Lakes subdivision.
"It's just a senseless crime. She loved him. She did everything for him, but that just wasn't enough because he's just a jealous person," Dunn said after the sentencing. "It's still hard and it'll take time, but time heals all wounds."
Investigators said Rose tried to kill himself before deputies forced their way into the home where the two lived. Authorities said they found him unconscious lying next to an empty pill bottle and a shotgun.
Investigators said Rose buried the body parts and returned to the home to get the rest of the body when deputies arrived at the house to check again because they "had a bad feeling from an earlier conversation (with Rose)," St. Johns County Sheriff David Shoar said.
Rose was taken to a hospital and later arrested and charged with murder.
Keller's other brother, Mark Dunn, said Rose's apology in court doesn't mean a whole lot.
"He betrayed my sister, somebody that truly loved him, and this vicious act, this cowardly act -- he's where he needs to be in a cage for the rest of his life," he said.
When investigators questioned Rose, they said he alluded to certain aspects of the killing, but was uncooperative and "extremely evasive" in assisting detectives in locating Keller's dismembered parts.
Prosecutors said they killing was likely the result of a jealous rage and crime of passion, a result of what family members described as Keller's "social butterfly" personality.
Keller was reported missing after she failed to report to work at her Putnam County elementary school.
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