FORT LAUDERDALE, FLa. –
The former wife of an accused murderer revealed new details about the man police said stabbed two people to death and injured two others in Coconut Creek last weekend.
Lisa Walsh said she has been living in fear for the past two years.
She was married to 44-year-old Jason Roseman for six years.
Walsh told Local 10 that at the beginning of the relationship, Roseman was a good partner.
She said it wasn't until he would start to drink that his true colors came out and it was then that he'd become violent.
"He came home drunk, shoved me on the floor and banged my head into the rug," Walsh said. "[I] got a cut on top of my head."
She let that incident go, but things changed when Walsh said Roseman almost murdered her two years ago during a drunken stupor.
She is still reeling and began to shake when recounting the events of that day.
"I'm pleading for my life and he's slashing the bed and the pillows around my face, he stuck me with the knife, he got up, he took the curtain rod and banged it on my head. He said, 'Get the hell out of here,'" she recalled.
Walsh said Roseman spent only eight months in jail and received a two-year probation.
He made a court appearance Wednesday for violating that probation.
Walsh said she thinks Roseman received a very lenient punishment for the incident.
"If the prosecutors would have done their jobs, this would have never happened," she said. "He got a slap on the wrist for almost killing me."
However, according to the Broward State Attorney's Office, Walsh did not cooperate with prosecutors.
A spokesperson for the state attorney's office provided Local 10 with a statement, as well as the closeout memos from Walsh's case. The statement read:
"Unfortunately, we need a cooperating victim. The sentence of 272 days in jail, a requirement to complete a batterers intervention program, substance/alcohol abuse evaluation and treatment, $600 restitution and 12 months of probation was the most we could achieve given the circumstances outlined in the attached closeout memos involving Mr. Roseman and the victim."
Exactly two years to the date later, Roseman was arrested again.
This time he's accused of killing his girlfriend, Jan Kirkland and her adult daughter, Hannah Bonta; and attempting to kill Bonta's boyfriend, Craig Newman, who remains in critical condition.
Police said Roseman also shot at responding officer Andrew Renna, who was hit in the torso and is listed in stable condition.
When Walsh found out about what happened, she was beside herself.
"They're dead, they're gone," she said. "And that poor boyfriend of the daughter is scarred for life. The cop, the dog, I mean this is insane."
Walsh strongly feels there needs to be harsher punishments for those arrested on domestic violence charges.
"Now, look; look what came out of this. Nothing but tragedy when it could have been prevented and it should have been," she said.
Roseman remains behind bars at Broward County Jail after being charged with two counts each of premeditated murder and attempted premeditated murder.