Convicted murderer’s troubled past revealed in trial over killing of NKC officer
Tearful family members and a clinical psychologist who evaluated convicted murderer Joshua Rocha testified Saturday to illustrate how Rocha’s life and psyche led to the killing of North Kansas City police officer Daniel Vasquez in July 2022.
A jury from St. Charles County, Missouri, had found Rocha guilty of first-degree murder on Thursday in a Clay County courtroom, advancing the trial to the sentencing stage.
Rocha, 28, is facing life in prison without parole or probation, or the death penalty. Rocha’s defense now attempts to sway the jury away from a death sentence after Clay County prosecutors rested their case on Friday.
Dash cam footage played in the courtroom showed Rocha shot Vasquez three times with an AR-15, including two misfires, during a traffic stop on July 19, 2022, after being pulled over for expired tags. Rocha left Vasquez’s body lying in the middle of the road at Clay Street and East 21st Avenue, according to the footage.
Prosecutors rested their case Friday after 15 witnesses took the stand. North Kansas City police officers, including Chief Kevin Freeman and Vasquez’s girlfriend, Katie Filger, along with family members, emotionally chronicled the day of the shooting and, through tears, explained how Vasquez’s death still affects them.
On Saturday, Rocha’s mother, the only person Rocha talked to before he turned himself in to authorities after the shooting; two of his great-aunts, and a clinical psychologist testified about the tumultuous conditions Rocha was born into, the trauma he endured in his life, and person they believe Rocha is.
Rocha family history
Joshua Rocha is one of four siblings, but two died in an electrical house fire along with his great-grandmother in 2003, family members said. The convicted killer suffered first-degree burns in the fire, according to clinical psychologist Sara Boyd.
Rocha’s mother worked low-wage jobs and struggled with housing, often living with family members in crowded houses, family members said. At one point in Rocha’s childhood, he, his mother, and his surviving brother lived in a great-aunt’s home with up to 12 other people.
“There wasn’t a time where he was living in a healthy situation,” Boyd said.
Rocha’s father was a gang member, according to Rocha’s public defender, Stephen Reynolds, and was incarcerated for 22 years, most of Rocha’s life. Rocha was with his father as a child when his father was arrested, Reynolds said.
Boyd explained that Rocha has language deficiencies and has low cognitive functioning, testing with an IQ of 81 as a 13-year-old, Boyd said. He was also diagnosed with autism later in life, after being a daily marijuana smoker by as young as 10 years old, she said, and dropped out of high school after ninth grade.
As a child, Rocha’s test scores were in the bottom 10% for children his age, except in nonverbal skills, where he tested in the bottom 21%, according to Boyd’s testimony.
Boyd interviewed Rocha for almost 10 hours during her evaluation, she said, while also speaking with family members, reviewing footage of the shooting, Rocha shooting and 3D printing guns, Rocha’s interview with police and an array of Rocha’s records.
The mental health expert sat on the witness stand for three hours, fielding questions from Reynolds and Clay County prosecutor Robert Sanders about two drafts of her report on Rocha’s mental makeup.
Boyd explained how trauma in Rocha’s life and developmental disabilities led him to be where he is in life.
Rocha disclosed childhood molestation to Boyd, she said. He grew up around substance abuse. His teachers said he was less mature than other students and only succeeded in school when the curriculum was modified, according to Boyd.
Rocha was also subject to bullying as a child, being called fat and a homophobic slur by family members, Boyd said. Rocha is bisexual, according to Boyd, and wondered if his sexuality was a result of the abuse he suffered as a child.
“Trauma has a significant factor in this case,” Boyd said. “The issue of him having post traumatic stress is very clear.”
Boyd also revealed Rocha tried methamphetamine before shooting Vasquez. Rocha told investigators he smoked marijuana the day before the shooting, according to his interview with investigators that was shared in court.
‘This is not Josh’
Rocha’s loved ones couldn’t believe he shot a police officer when they heard the news three years ago.
Family members often helped Rocha, his mother and his brother as they struggled in life after the tragic fire, they said.
“It was hard,” Rocha’s great-aunt Tricia Sanchez said. The Rocha family matriarch, who raised Rocha’s mother, died in the fire.
“Kids were devastated. It was tragic for all of us.”
Family meals and game nights were routine. Rocha had several cousins close in age that he played with.
As an adult, Rocha frequently helped Sanchez and her daughter with chores and house duties when they were both recovering from injuries and surgery.
“I miss him, because he helped me a lot,” Sanchez said.
Some of Rocha’s behavior with guns, family members believe, maybe because he spent less time around them as he grew up.
After high school, Rocha gained employment at fast food restaurants, but would quit or be fired, Boyd said.
His mother bought him a 3D printer that he first used to print her Star Wars warships and keychains. Rocha later began printing firearm components, buying other gun parts, putting guns together and selling or trading them for other guns, according to Kristina Rocha.
In one instance, Rocha was with his cousins in the front yard of a home when a car slowly drove by and rolled down a window, according to Boyd. Rocha fired at the full car, telling his cousins to get down and hide behind a tree, as someone in the vehicle fired back, Boyd said.
When pressed by Sanders about how Rocha’s past impacted his ability to fatally shoot a police officer, Boyd explained how someone in Rocha’s mental condition can fall back to “regularly physically or rehearsed action[s]” when faced with a difficult decision.
The 2022 shooting not only broke the hearts of Vasquez’s loved ones, Rocha’s family members said it hurt them deeply as well.
“This is my nephew, I love him,” Rocha’s great-aunt Gloria Moreno said through tears and sniffles. “We’re family, but it’s so sad, so devastating to hear because it’s not him.”
This story was originally published October 4, 2025 at 7:53 PM.
