Videos of NKC officer’s convicted murderer shooting guns shown during sentencing
Clay County prosecutors presented evidence Thursday showing convicted murderer Joshua Rocha shooting guns and printing firearm components in a series of videos recovered by police, played for the jury during the sentencing phase of the trial for slain North Kansas City police officer Daniel Vasquez.
A jury from St. Charles County, Missouri, found Rocha guilty of first-degree murder Thursday morning.
Prosecutors and Rocha’s defense are now presenting evidence to the jury to determine if Rocha’s sentence will be life in prison without parole or death.
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 drove away from the scene, leaving Vasquez’s body lying in the middle of the road at Clay Street and East 21st Avenue, according to dash cam footage played in the courtroom.
Rocha, 28, told police he was on the way to the gun store when he was stopped.
The four-person Clay County prosecutor team presented nearly 30 videos from Rocha’s cellphone of him posing with guns, shooting guns while driving, and 3-D printing gun frames and components.
Some videos showed Rocha shooting what appeared to be an assault rifle. Other videos showed Rocha shooting handguns that had a switch so they could fire automatically with extended magazines. Some of the weapons he possessed had accessories like laser sights, extended magazines and a threaded barrel to equip further attachements.
In one video, Rocha pointed out holes in a printed shooting target.
“Dome shots... nick that artery,” Rocha said in the video, where he counted the number of holes in the paper while acknowledging how it would affect a person. Vasquez died from gunshot wounds to the face and to the left of Vasquez’s belly button, which affected several internal organs and severed his spinal cord, according to previous testimony.
In a few videos, Rocha repeated a racial slur that is routinely targeted at Black people.
One of the guns in a few videos appeared to be a ghost gun, a privately made firearm, that was recovered on Sept. 12, 2020, during a traffic stop in Liberty, according to police testimony. Rocha was stopped for a traffic violation, but arrested because of a warrant out for his arrest.
Rocha told police he had a firearm in the car with him. The firearm was a ghost gun, a 3-D printed handgun without a serial number with a threaded barrel, green laser sight and loaded with 9mm bullets.
Prosecutors also showed how Rocha has had disciplinary issues while detained at the Clay County Detention Center.
In June 2023, detention officers found a metal shank, sharpened from a brush, for which he received 30 days in disciplinary lockdown after a hearing, according to Clay County Sheriff’s Office PREA Coordinator Sgt. Jennifer Davis’s testimony.
In a recorded phone call from jail played for the jury, Rocha could be heard telling his parents he felt he was being violently threatened by other inmates.
“If [inmates] are gon’ have [a shank], I’m gon’ have one,” Rocha said in the recording.
On Sept. 23, detention officers recovered a styrofoam replica Glock handgun and magazine from Rocha’s cell when he was in St. Charles for his case, according to Clay County Sheriff’s assistant commander Sgt. Alexander MacDonald’s testimony. The number on the firearm is Rocha’s inmate pin.
Rocha’s cellmate packed his belongings for him, detention officer Garrett Taylor said on the witness stand.
Rocha’s life story
The opening statement from Rocha’s public defender, Stephen Reynolds, gave an overview of Rocha’s life story, with family members set to testify on his behalf.
Rocha is one of four siblings, but two died in an electrical house fire along with his grandmother, Reynolds said. Rocha’s mother worked low wage jobs and struggled with housing throughout his life.
Rocha’s father was a gang member, Reynolds said, and incarcerated during his childhood. Rocha was with his father as a child when his father was arrested, Reynolds said.
Rocha also has language deficiencies and has low cognitive functioning, testing with an IQ of 81 as a child, according to Reynolds. He was also diagnosed with autism later in life, after being a daily marijuana smoker as a child, and dropped out of high school.
Two mental health professionals are arranged to testify on the impact of all of these factors, Reynolds said.
