The appellant, Jason Thomas Rohde, and his wife Susan Rohde attended a work conference at the Spier Hotel in July 2016. On the morning of 24 July 2016, the deceased was found dead in the bathroom of their hotel suite. The appellant claimed that she had committed suicide by hanging herself behind the bathroom door using an electrical hair curler cord. The State alleged that the appellant murdered the deceased by manual strangulation and/or smothering, and thereafter rearranged the scene to resemble a suicide, thus obstructing the course of justice. Evidence included extensive forensic pathology testimony, bloodstain and DNA analysis, witness accounts of the scene, and expert evidence concerning the deceased’s mental state. The trial court convicted the appellant of murder and defeating the ends of justice and imposed an effective sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment.
The appeal against the convictions for murder and defeating the ends of justice was dismissed. The appeal against sentence was upheld. The sentences were replaced with 15 years’ imprisonment for murder and three years’ imprisonment for obstructing the course of justice, to run concurrently, and the appellant was declared unfit to possess a firearm. The sentences were deemed to have been imposed on 27 February 2019.
The case is significant for its careful treatment of conflicting forensic pathology evidence in homicide cases and its reaffirmation of the criminal standard of proof where suicide is raised as an alternative explanation. It illustrates the appellate court’s approach to evaluating expert evidence holistically and clarifies principles governing interference with sentence on appeal.