HARRISONVILLE, Mo. — Former Grandview police officer Jeffrey Moreland was found guilty of first-degree murder and armed criminal action by a Cass County jury on Thursday.
Moreland, 54, was accused of killing Cara Jo Roberts, 30, who was found murdered in her home in November 2008. Her husband said the verdict comes as a huge relief.
“The verdict lifted a huge weight off my chest. But this is really a victory for Cara,” Jeff Roberts said.
Detectives collected DNA from the scene but weren’t able to match it until more than two years after the initial investigation, when they say they identified Moreland as a suspect in another Jackson County murder case in May 2011.
Both of the cases involved sexual assaults, no signs of forced entry and bathtubs filled with water at both crime scenes.
Jeff Roberts testified Tuesday that when he arrived home from work and found his wife’s body in the tub, he initially thought she had slipped and fallen.
Prosecutors argued that Moreland entered Roberts’ home with a 9-millimeter handgun, zip ties and duct tape. They said he bound her with zip ties and sexually assaulted her. Afterward, prosecutors said that Moreland forced a naked Roberts to get into a bathtub full of water.
As she lay in a fetal position in the bathtub, a prosecutor told the jury, Moreland put a gun to the back of her head and fired one shot. That shot passed through her head, exited through her left cheek and then went into her left thigh.
Prosecutors also told the jury that when detectives sought a DNA sample from Moreland, he convinced his future son-in-law to provide the DNA samples. The prosecutor said Moreland then tried to pass the samples off as his own when police collected them. After a long process, Cass County Prosecutor Teresa Hensley said the verdict should ease community fears.
“We are satisfied with the verdict and now the community, which supported the Roberts family for several years, can feel safer now,” Hensley said.
