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A Pleasanton resident was convicted of second-degree murder on Monday for murdering his girlfriend last year, dismembering her body and dumping her remains on Bay Farm Island in the city of Alameda, according to the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.
Joseph Roberts, 43, is facing 15 years to life in prison for the murder of Rachel Elizabeth Imani Buckner after a jury found him guilty in an Oakland courtroom following deliberations which lasted less than a day, the DA’s office stated in a press release Monday evening.
“Today’s verdict brings justice not only to Rachel Elizabeth Imani Buckner but also to her daughter, her immediate and extended family and our community,” DA Pamela Price stated in the press release. “What happened to Rachel Elizabeth Imani Buckner is unimaginable.”
According to the press release, Roberts and Buckner met at Golden Gate University Law School in 2019 and lived together in an apartment in Pleasanton. However, over the years police records showed that Pleasanton police officers were called to their apartment for multiple welfare checks and domestic violence calls, the DA’s office said.
At one point last year, Buckner had disappeared but according to evidence presented at the trial, Roberts never reported that she was missing.
Then on July 20, 2023, the Alameda Police Department responded to a suspicious circumstance report at the Harbor Bay Club on Bay Farm Island in Alameda and when officers arrived at the scene they found a woman’s dismembered body inside a black garbage bag, according to the DA’s office.
According to testimony and evidence presented at the trial, the woman was identified as 27-year-old Buckner on Aug. 29, 2023. Roberts was arrested on Sept. 6, 2023 in connection with Buckner’s death by the U.S. Marshals Service and police from Pleasanton and Alameda.
Roberts had pleaded not guilty during two plea hearings last September and October, according to the Alameda County Superior Court Criminal Case Portal.
However, prosecutors presented evidence to the jury during his trial including DNA that matched Roberts’ DNA, which was found on the duct tape that was used to seal the garbage bag containing Buckner’s dismembered body, according to the DA’s office.
“The condition of her body when it was found shocks our humanity,” Price said. “This tragedy will leave her family and our community forever traumatized whenever her murder is mentioned.”
According to the DA’s office, the second-degree murder charge was the maximum charge Roberts faced “due to the circumstances of the case.”
Roberts will be sentenced on June 14 at the René C. Davidson Courthouse.
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