After previously pleading not guilty, Joshua Rocha's defense team said he killed North Kansas City Police Officer Daniel Vasquez in July 2022, during opening arguments on Monday, the first day of his trial at the Clay County Courthouse.
Rocha is charged with first-degree murder for Vasquez's death, and Clay County Prosecuting Attorney Zachary Thompson is pursuing the death penalty.
After saying Rocha killed Vasquez, Rocha's defense asked jurors to decide what type of murder was committed under Missouri law.
Police say Vasquez pulled Rocha over for a traffic stop around 10:40 a.m. on July 19, 2022, for an expired temporary registration tag that belonged to another vehicle.
Two graphic videos of the killing— one from Vasquez's dash cam and the other from a nearby home surveillance camera — were showed in court on Monday.
The videos show Vasquez approaching Rocha's alleged vehicle. Once Vasquez has made it to the driver's side, Rocha allegedly shoots Vasquez with an AR-style rifle once from inside the vehicle. After Vasquez drops to the ground, Rocha allegedly exits the vehicle and shoots him two more times after his gun misfired twice.
Rocha then allegedly fled the scene in his vehicle, which Rocha's defense says he was living out of at the time.
Prosecutors say Rocha spent the following couple of hours to conceal his identity by changing his clothes, discarding the temp tag and attempting to paint his car a different color.
His defense team said Rocha went to his mom's house, where she told him he needed to turn himself in.
By about 1:15 p.m. on July 19, 2022, Rocha went to the Clay County Annex and told an employee he wanted to turn himself in. A witness and former Clay County Annex employee told the courtroom on Monday her coworker asked Rocha what he wanted to turn himself in for, and he told her for murder.
In court on Monday, both the state and defense played video that showed Rocha waiting in a chair in the Clay County Annex lobby for about 10 to 15 minutes before police arrived and arrested him.
On Monday, prosecutors said Rocha made a series of deliberate decisions on July 19, 2022, to end Vasquez's life. In his opening argument, Thompson said Rocha did not act impulsively, and that he waited for Vasquez to approach his car.
The state called multiple witnesses — from eyewitnesses to law enforcement and an ammunition comparison expert — to testify on Monday.
Crime scene technicians with the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department, which led the investigation, showed jurors multiple pieces of physical evidence — Vasquez's ballistic vest, and live rounds and shell casings from the scene — as they testified on Monday.
It was an emotional day in the courtroom, as people shed tears throughout the opening arguments and witness testimonies.
Thompson previously said Vasquez's family and the North Kansas City Police Department played a part in the decision to seek the death penalty against Rocha.
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KSHB 41 reporter Lily O’Shea Becker covers Franklin and Douglas counties in Kansas. Share your story idea with Lily.
