EVERETT, Wash. — The first witnesses testified Monday in the trial of the man accused of killing Everett police Officer Dan Rocha outside a north Everett Starbucks last March.
Prosecutors played cellphone video captured by a customer showing Richard Rotter shooting Rocha three times in the head at point-blank range. Rotter ran over Rocha's body and fled the scene before he was captured.
"I saw a struggle," said Adam Dailey, who recorded the incident. "The gun was up to the cop's head and he was getting shot."
On March 25, 2022, Officer Dan Rocha was going about his daily routine when he stopped at a Starbucks on Broadway Avenue for a cup of coffee.
"Unfortunately, Dan Rocha had no idea what he was walking into, and he was dead 8 minutes later," said Snohomish County Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Craig Matheson.
Rocha saw Rotter moving guns between two cars and decided to investigate. Rotter is a convicted felon and is not legally able to possess a weapon.
Evidence offered in court Monday showed Rotter also had more than $10,000 in fentanyl, heroin and meth in his car.
Prosecutors said Rotter knew he would end up back in prison if Rocha found out so he shot Rochat a total of five times, "because he was unwilling to accept the legal consequences of being a felon in possession of a firearm," Matheson argued in court.
Rotter's defense team does not dispute that he killed Officer Rocha. They argue Rotter has long suffered from PTSD and cognitive disorders that impair his thinking and reasoning.
The defense claimed Rotter was under the influence of meth and fentanyl at the time of the killing and was delusional, as he was arrested a few miles from the scene after a brief pursuit.
"You will hear him screaming in distress, 'They're after me, they're after, me they're after me,'" said Defense Attorney Natalie Tarantino. "It does not appear he's saying the police are after me because he is interacting with the police."
If convicted, Rotter faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.