MILWAUKEE (CN) - A Wisconsin man will not be allowed to recover the proceeds from his wife's life insurance policy after he viscously stabbed her and her sister to death at home, a federal judge said on Monday, citing the "slayer statute."

On March 10, 2020, Adam Roth stabbed to death his wife, Dominique Roth, and her sister, Deidre Popanda. He also slit his dog's throat, and attempted to kill his mother-in-law and other sister-in-law, Gilane Popanda and Desiree Popanda.

He pleaded guilty but not guilty due to mental disease or defect to intentional homicide and attempted intentional homicide charges in November 2020, where he was sentenced to two lifetimes in a mental institution.

The only question left to settle was what to do about Dominique Roth's life insurance policy with Prudential insurance Company of America, for which Adam Roth was the sole beneficiary.

The insurance company asked the Eastern District of Wisconsin to intervene on the question whether Adam Roth is blocked from receiving the $74,992.77 pay out by the Wisconsin "slayer statute," which disallows killers to profit from their crime.

"On this record, the court is satisfied that the defendant acted unlawfully and intentionally - with the purpose to kill his wife. Those actions bar his recovery under the Wis. Stat 854.14," Chief U.S. District Judge Pamela Pepper found Tuesday.

Before the federal case could move forward, a civil wrongful death suit filed by Deanndra Schmocker, another of Domonique Roth's sisters, along with Gilane and Desiree Popanda in Waukesha County Circuit Court went to trial.

There, Adam Roth was found responsible for the deaths of his wife and sister-in-law, and ordered to pay over $5.9 million in damages.

Pepper said Tuesday that Adam Roth committed his crimes with intention for the purposes of the slayer statute and awarded the life insurance money to Gilane Popanda and Schmocker, with interest.

Wisconsin courts have never before addressed whether a beneficiary who kills the policy owner but is found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect can recoup the pay out under the slayer statute.

The court was therefore tasked with not only deciding whether the preponderance of the evidence shows that the killing was unlawful and intentional, but also with defining "unlawful" and "intentional" in the context of the slayer statute.

Pepper relied on a 2018 Seventh Circuit ruling to do so, which barred a wife from recovering her husband's ERISA pension benefits after she was found not guilty of murdering him by reason of insanity. The court found that the wife intended to kill her husband, insane or not, and applied the slayer statute.

Pepper concluded that the intent required under the slayer statute is a lesser standard than criminal intent and that Adam Roth clearly satisfied that burden.

"There is nothing in 854.14(5)(c) to suggest that the word 'unlawful' requires a killer to be convicted under a criminal statute," she wrote.

Pepper found that when Adam Roth told police on the scene that he "killed them all" and even admitted to trying to kill his nine-year-old nephew, it was enough to establish he intended to kill his wife and her sister.

"The defendant could act with the purpose to kill and still lack the ability to understand the wrongfulness or criminality of what he was doing," Pepper wrote.

In his opposition brief, Adam Roth focused only on the not guilty part of his plea, ignoring that he admitted responsibility for the killings in open court.

During the bench trial in Waukesha County Circuit Court in 2023, the judge heard the testimony of Dominique Roth's sisters and mother about the events of March 2020. Pepper laid out parts of the testimony in her Monday opinion.

They testified that all but Miller had been living in their parents' house, including the Roths. Desiree Popanda said that when she heard Dominique Roth begin screaming, she thought that her sister had seen a centipede or a bug.

"But then the scream was worse than that, like it got worse where I realized it was more," she testified. "She was more in terror."

Adam Roth began his attack in the kitchen with his wife before beginning the frenzied chase to stab each family member. The sisters and mother attempted to fight him off, running all throughout the house to prevent him from harming each other and begging him to stop.

When he eventually cornered Desiree Popanda, he said simply, "I'm sorry, I have to" and she testified that it seemed like he was going in for a hug but actually stabbed her in the lower back.

The family or their attorney could not be reached by press time.

Source: Courthouse News Service