ST. CHARLES COUNTY • Jurors found a former Dittmer man guilty Friday night of killing his estranged wife by stabbing her in the neck just after a divorce hearing in 2009.
Aaron J. LaRose, 34, was convicted of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of Jill LaRose, 30. Her body was found in a drainage ditch off Dalbow Road east of Highway 79 in St. Charles County on June 24, 2009, just hours after a divorce hearing. She had been choked, possibly by two lengths of rope left near her body, and stabbed three times in the throat.
The jury took about 6½ hours to reach its verdict. As it was read, LaRose dropped his head. Afterward, Anna Kelley, Jill LaRose's mother, said, "We want to thank God for answered prayers that (Aaron) didn't get by with doing this to her." Amber Keys, one of Jill LaRose's sisters, said she believed saved voice mails may have helped jurors reach their verdict. "She (Jill LaRose) always thought she couldn't stand up to him, that she wasn't strong enough," Keys said. "She did. She saved the messages. He wasn't able to fool anybody anymore." Aaron LaRose's family declined to comment.
Assistant prosecutor Laura Whitlow said Aaron LaRose, desperate to avoid divorce, had harassed Jill LaRose by phone. She said he often left threatening voice messages and texts after his wife filed for divorce in August 2008. The couple had three children and had separated in December 2007. Whitlow said Aaron LaRose left his cellphone at home the day of the divorce hearing but brought two lengths of rope, a knife and a key to his wife's Dodge Neon. Prosecutors closed their case Friday by playing messages Aaron LaRose left on his wife's phone from December 2008 to June 18, 2009. He accused her of being a liar manipulated by Satan and said the Bible did not condone divorce.
"I will hurt you any way I can because you will not stop hurting me," he said in one message from December 2008. "Eternal hell will not make up for all the hurt you bestowed on me and this family in the last year." Brad Kessler, one of Aaron LaRose's attorneys, said the messages weren't tied to the murder case, and prosecutors used them as a smear. "The divorce case they tried doesn't make him a murderer," Kessler said.
Investigators said they found DNA consistent with Jill LaRose's profile on a shoe Aaron LaRose had worn that day and DNA consistent with his and his wife's profiles on the lengths of rope. Kessler tried to prove that time and distance made it impossible for Aaron LaRose to have committed the murder. The lone defense witness had testified that she saw Aaron LaRose at a park the day of the slaying. On cross examination, she could not remember whether it had been the day of the murder or the day after, and she could not recall whether the man looked like Aaron LaRose. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty. The only punishment for first-degree murder is life in prison without the possibility of parole. Jurors had the option of finding Aaron LaRose guilty of second-degree murder, which has a maximum penalty of life with the possibility of parole. Circuit Judge Nancy Schneider set sentencing for June 6.
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