CLAYTON, Mo. — Sex, lies and drugs? Or murder, rape, assault, kidnapping and sodomy?
Defense attorneys used the former during closing arguments on Friday to describe the alleged murder of a St. Louis County woman whose body decomposed in a man’s bedroom for six days as well as the sexual assaults of two other women.
Prosecutors used the latter in their closing argument to describe the 13 charges Joseph Dejoie was facing for the alleged murder of 39-year-old Jacqueline “Jacque” Mitchell and the assaults of the two other women, who came forward after news of her death broke.
A jury found Dejoie guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Mitchell after five hours of deliberations.
He was also found guilty of third-degree assault, tampering with evidence, abandonment of a corpse, possession of a controlled substance, first-degree kidnapping, first-degree sodomy and two counts of first-degree rape.
The jury found Dejoie not guilty of the sexual assault of a woman he met on Facebook just days before Mitchell's murder.
The jury began its deliberations on a total of 13 counts against Dejoie at 11 a.m. Friday.
The jury recommended maximum sentences on all charges except for one, including three life sentences of 30 years each for the sex crimes. A judge will formally sentence Dejoie May 17 and decide whether the sentences will run concurrently or consecutively.
Mitchell died from a fentanyl overdose sometime between March 15 and 20, 2023, inside Dejoie’s apartment. Prosecutors allege Dejoie gave her the drug, and sexually assaulted her as she slipped in and out of consciousness.
One of the two additional sexual assault victims met Dejoie on Facebook after her long-time boyfriend died, and agreed to go on one date with him to a casino just days before Mitchell’s murder.
About a year before that, prosecutors say, Dejoie picked up a woman who was walking alongside a highway, brought her to the Maryland Heights apartment where he lived with his parents, drugged her and raped her. Photos of her bruised and bloodied face were shown to the jury after she said he struck her.
Mitchell and Dejoie knew each other from going to the same bars and had had sex on at least one occasion before her death. Prosecutors say he lured Mitchell to his apartment on the night she died by lying to her and telling her his father had died and he wanted her to drink with him and comfort him.
Assistant St. Louis County Prosecutor John Schlesinger asked jurors during his closing argument Friday why two women who did not know each other would lie about being held against their will and forced into sex acts that they did not consent to.
He noted how invasive and intimidating it is for a sexual assault victim to also undergo a rape kit exam and then testify before a courtroom full of strangers about the most awful experiences of their lives.
The defense
Assistant Public Defender Jennifer Daniels characterized the rape of a woman Dejoie picked up along the side of Interstate 270 as a one-night-stand-gone-wrong.
She said the alleged the victim could have texted her husband at the time for help. She never told him she was being held against her will inside Dejoie’s apartment on the night in question because “she couldn’t, because he was controlling.”
Daniels also told jurors the alleged victim of sodomy was inside her own car with Dejoie, doing meth and marijuana when he offered to pay her for oral sex.
Mitchell’s family members shook their heads in disgust and a few walked out of the courtroom when Daniels began her assessment of her final moments.
“There were things about Jacque’s life that her family did not know,” Daniels said, before claiming Mitchell used drugs and had sex with Black men all without her family knowing.
Mitchell was white. Dejoie is Black.
She said her client was “not well,” and using drugs heavily during the days Mitchell’s corpse was in his bedroom.
“He was a good friend,” she said, adding that he did not know what to do after she overdosed in his room. At that point, Dejoie began wiping his eyes with a Kleenex.
Dejoie admitted to wiping down Mitchell’s body with disinfectant wipes as well as her car, which he drove for several days to casinos and other places.
Daniels noted how her client also told police where her body was and talked to them for six hours because, “he had nothing to hide.”
“Listening to this case is bizarre and weird,” Daniels admitted. “He is a 50-year-old man who lives with his parents, sneaks women into his bedroom window, pays money for companionship and sex…but just because he’s weird and bizarre doesn’t mean he is a murderer or rapist or holds people against their will.”
Schlesinger shot back, accusing Daniels of victim blaming.
“Saying they were friends is offensive to her memory and her family,” Schlesinger said. “Defense is blaming the victims, essentially saying [a victim]’s assault was an act of prostitution, the other was a one-night-stand and happened because Mitchell liked Black men.”
He added: “These are the actions of a man that’s trying not to get caught. Her saying he has nothing to hide is ridiculous. It is the behavior of someone with no regard for human life, a psychopath.”
