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A Pleasanton man who was found guilty of second-degree murder for killing his girlfriend and dismembering her body last year was formally sentenced to 15 years to life in a state prison without the possibility of probation Tuesday morning in a packed courtroom in Oakland.
Around 50 people, including family and friends of the victim Rachel Elizabeth Imani Buckner, watched as others read their victim impact statements before Joseph Roberts, 43, was read his fate.
“Mr. Roberts, in my decades working in the criminal justice system I have seen a lot of heinous crime and also a lot of tragedy,” Alameda County Superior Court Judge Scott Patton said during the July 2 sentencing hearing. “Imani’s killing is a heartbreaking tragedy … your crime is one of the most heinous crimes I have ever seen.”
Roberts was initially found guilty of the murder on May 13 following a jury trial.
Buckner, who was 27 years old at the time of her death, had met Roberts at Golden Gate University Law School in 2019, according to a press release from the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office following the jury’s decision.
The two lived together in an apartment in Pleasanton.
According to the district attorney’s press release, Pleasanton Police Department records showed that over the years, officers were called to the couple’s apartment for various welfare checks and domestic violence calls.
During the sentencing hearing, several friends and family members talked about how they saw a pattern of abuse while Buckner was with Roberts and how he manipulated Buckner so that she would distance herself from her loved ones.
“He tore my first born child away from me first by turning her against me and making her believe that she was not loved, that I didn’t care about her, that I could not be trusted, that I was the enemy,” S. Jamila Buckner, Rachel’s mother, said during her victim impact statement on July 2.
Buckner’s mother also went on to talk about how she did not recognize her own daughter while she was with Roberts and how she always felt like she had to look over her shoulder when Roberts would visit her house.
She also alleged Roberts assaulted her and her own mother — Buckner’s grandmother — in her home.
Other friends who were close to Buckner said during their victim impact statements that they would see Roberts yelling and being aggressive toward her multiple times and that they knew she was in a dangerous relationship.
But despite the multiple check-ins from Pleasanton police, no action was ever taken toward Roberts during the time the other members of the Buckner family and friends said they saw the abuse taking place.
Then at one point last year, Buckner disappeared — Roberts never reported that she was missing. Following her disappearance, Alameda Police Department officers responded to a suspicious circumstance report at the Harbor Bay Club on Bay Farm Island in Alameda on July 20, 2023, according to the DA’s office.
When officers arrived at the scene they found a woman’s dismembered body inside a black garbage bag, which was later determined to be the remains of Buckner.
“When he beat, tortured, murdered and dismembered my daughter, I felt like my insides were ripped out of my very soul,” S. Jamila Buckner told the court.
She said apart from traumatizing her, Buckner’s grandmother and other family and friends, Roberts also traumatized Buckner’s 4-year-old child who has to make the difficult realization that her mother is dead.
According to the DA’s office, 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 to the charges. But according to the DA’s office, prosecutors presented irrefutable evidence to the jury during his trial two months ago to prove Roberts was connected to Buckner’s death.
One crucial piece of evidence was 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.
However, Patton told the packed courtroom on Tuesday that during the trial, the pathologist who studied Buckner’s body could not determine the cause of death. He said the manner of death was determined to be homicide but because they could not prove the cause — and because there were no additional charges that would enhance the punishment — the court was only able to impose the 15 years to life sentence.
Patton said that while he did deny the possibility for probation, there were no words or actions he could say or do that would give the Buckner family and their friends any relief or that would bring her back.
Roberts waived his right to comment at the hearing, but his criminal defense attorney, Anne Beles, said that while she knew the sentencing was going to be what it was, she hoped after the sentencing everyone on all sides of this case can get “some semblance of peace.”
As for the family and friends, many said they wish Buckner was still alive because she had so much to live for, was meant for great things and deserved to be with her daughter. But now that she is gone, they said they hope to get some comfort knowing that Roberts can’t hurt her or any other woman ever again.
“The only solace I can see in this entire tragic situation is that Rachel Elizabeth Imani Buckner is finally at rest … and no longer lives in fear and is no longer being tormented and tortured,” Judy Carter, a longtime friend of S. Jamila Buckner, told the court.
