Gabriel Roche *Missouri Teen Killer* Prison ID

One case. Two mothers. Two pleas.

One begged for leniency for her child, a now-convicted killer.

The other called for death to avenge her murdered son.

Both said today in Greene County Court that their lives will never be the same.

Weston North, 17, idolized Gabriel Roche, who was 18 on Dec. 31, 2011, when he stabbed North to death in a ditch after North fled from Roche’s first attack.

While North pleaded for his life, asking his friend to spare him, Roche told authorities: “All I could say was, F’ you for making me do this.”

Roche, prosecutors explained, believed North had informed on Roche’s drug activities.

He told authorities he “wanted to show myself, my brother and whoever could hear for a thousand miles what happens when you mess up.”

Greene County prosecutors had been asking the judge for a first-degree conviction, which would have ensured Roche, now 20, would never be released from prison.

Instead, Judge Calvin Holden ruled that Roche committed second-degree murder and will get life in prison—which, in the state of Missouri, is 30 years—with the possibility of parole. Due to state sentencing rules for how much of an actual sentence must be served, he’ll be about 43 when eligible to be released.

Roche also got three years for armed criminal action, which will run at the same time as the murder charge.

“I think he should get the death penalty for taking my Weston away from me and his little brother,” Erika North, Weston’s mother, wrote in a victim impact statement for the judge.

Prosecutor Dan Patterson read the statement for Erika North, who was sobbing too strongly to compose herself.

“Our lives will never be the same,” she wrote.

In that way, Deborah Cooper—Roche’s mother—and Erika North were similar.

Cooper described Roche after he became involved in drugs as “dark, glassy-eyed, sickly and hollow.” She said she didn’t recognize him.

“That’s not the same person who is here today,” she said, gesturing to her son, who spent the entire hearing looking down at his hands except when his mother spoke of him.

“I know that Gabriel is a good person on the inside.”

But Patterson didn’t agree.

“The defendant is young and very, very dangerous,” Patterson said, emphasizing that if Roche ever got out of prison, he would be a threat.

“He should be locked up for as long as possible.”

Patterson presented evidence of what he called proof of Roche’s true character.

One piece was the statement of Roche’s former girlfriend, who said he often said that “snitches end up in ditches” and was violent toward her.

Patterson also presented a letter from Roche to a woman previously connected with the local Springfield National Socialist Movement—a white supremacy group.

“But like you said we got to keep teaching and keep the faith. For we are the white. . . I mean the light of the world,” he wrote.

As an example of how callous Roche was, Patterson read another excerpt from the letter, dated July 2013.

“There is no physical evidence in my case,” Roche wrote. “Just a story and a dead guy. . . without (his confession) all they have is a couple ‘witnesses’ that were originally, charged sorta for like 24 hour holds and made statements against me. And me being the nice guy that I am got them all out of it. I think I came out on the short end of the stick? Lol. Bunch of filthy junkys. Bless their little hearts.”

Roche spoke briefly during the sentencing hearing, saying he hoped for forgiveness. He said, “I know that Weston is in heaven and I can only hope that one day I can ask him myself.”

Debating degrees of murder

The judge says it was a second-degree murder, and openly criticized the state’s case against now-convicted murder Gabriel North.

“My reaction was, I didn’t know how the state could make a first-degree murder case,” Judge Calvin Holden said before rendering his verdict.

Afterward, Prosecutor Dan Patterson defended the case.

“I feel it was a very strong first-degree murder case,” Patterson said, noting that the family of victim, Weston North, was “frustrated and disappointed“ in the verdict.

In explaining his ruling, Holden said Roche’s taped confession while being interviewed by authorities was almost totally incoherent, noting: “He had extreme paranoia because of his meth addiction.”

But, Holden acknowledged, “He obviously knew what he was about to do that night.”

Patterson, who said there is no appeal option for the case, admitted to being frustrated and disappointed.