Credit: Flickr/steakpinball
Lorraine Patterson loved her grandson Jared Rose and he loved her. He told his mother once that she loved him unconditionally, no matter what he did or the demons he battled.
Jared Rose repaid that love by beating his “Nana” and striking her with a weighted sock on the afternoon of January 29, 2015, which was her 95th birthday, during a seemingly unprovoked attack that also left his father with serious injuries.
Within weeks, Patterson died at St. Mary Medical Center in Middletown due to complications from the attack at the hands of her grandson, whom his mother said always had a close relationship with her 25-year-old kin.
“She was always his security blanket,” said Lynn Rose, Jared’s mother.
Jared Rose on Monday pleaded guilty to attempted homicide, involuntary manslaughter and disarming a police officer. He was sentenced by county Judge Jeffrey L. Finley to 10 to 30 years in state prison for attempted murder, two to five years concurrently for involuntary manslaughter and seven years probation.
Since the incident, three doctors determined Jared Rose suffered from mental illness and that played a factor in the crime, according to testimony.
The sentencing was the end of a chapter that started January 29, 2015 when the attack on his father and grandmother began, seemly unprovoked. According to court papers, Jared Rose walked into his father Marc’s home office on Lark Lane and stabbed himself with a knife while stating he wished to die. Marc Rose dialed authorities and Jared Rose began assaulting him. Patterson, who lived with her daughter, son-in-law and Jared Rose on Lark Lane, tried to break up the altercation when her grandson began striking her. Marc Rose carried Patterson outside with Jared Rose following. Outside, the assault on Marc Rose continued and his son stabbed him with a broken golf club.
Officer Daniel Clifton of the Newtown Township Police Department, which patrols Wrightstown, was first to arrive to the bloody scene and found Jared Rose wrestling his father outside. He called for backup and attempted to control Jared Rose. Three blasts from a Taser were not enough but Clifton kept control of his weapon even as Jared Rose yanked at it.
After Sgt. Daniel Bell, Officer Steven Benz and Officer Thomas Rawa arrived, Jared Rose was taken into custody and the full extent of the crime was realized.
Lorraine Patterson
Patterson, who was 4-foot-11 and barely 100 pounds on good day, was spotted shortly after walking toward police. She was bleeding from the face, had missing teeth and appeared to have various other injuries. She told responding lawmen that her “grandson Jared” was to blame for the attack which left blood on the snow outside the Lark Lane home.
Lynn Rose testified that she arrived home from a dentist appointment and followed ambulances into her neighborhood. She arrived to find her 95-year-old mother being loaded into a transport medical van. She followed the ambulances that carried her son, husband and mother to St. Mary Medical Center.
Lynn Rose told the court that she went to the dental appointment worried about Jared Rose’s mental state. Marc Rose told her to go and everything would be okay.
After a period of being reclusive and not acting normally, Jared Rose willingly agreed to go the laundromat with his mother in the hours before the assaults. He first came down without pants on and changed after his mother reminded him to put them on. While in the car and walking around after, Rose kept stating what a beautiful day it was outside, his mother testified.
“He had a funny smile as we drove,” the mother of three grown men said.
Inside the laundromat, Jared Rose seemed out of it and appeared confused when handed coins to place in the machine, Lynn Rose said, adding her son appeared to forget what money was.
Before leaving for the dentist, the Rose family gathered to sing Patterson “Happy Birthday.” Jared Rose, according to his mother, even lovingly celebrated and sung to his beloved grandmother.
Lynn Rose said she “had a terrible feeling while at the dentist.” Little did she know her son was to attack her husband and mother. Marc Rose would spend nearly a week in the hospital and need surgery, while her mother would succumb to complications from pneumonia and blunt force trauma a few weeks later after deciding to not pursue “extraordinary” measures to prolong her life.
Jared Rose’s mental health declined after his girlfriend broke up with him in 2014 and he mainly stayed at home. A rare exception was the day his mother asked him to come to the dry cleaners with her.
Jared Rose had suffered noticeable mental health issues since childhood. While not on Ritalin and other medication, Jared Rose could be violent and uncontrollable. But on medication, Jared Rose was a high-achieving student who stayed on task and calm, Lynn Rose said.
During his teenage years, he dabbled in drugs. Marijuana was his drug of choice but his parents always suspected he was into something stronger, yet they had no proof.
In court, the prosecution brought up several times throughout his youth and young adulthood where Jared Rose had threatened harm or carried out violence against his family. Deputy District Attorney Antonetta Stancu noted several times when police were called when the Rose family resided in Upper Makefield. She said Jared Rose one time punched another student and assaulted his brother another time. His parents noted during statements in the past that Jared Rose had threatened to kill them, even going as far to say he was going to buy a gun in Feasterville.
Eventually, Jared Rose tried to buy a gun in Feasterville but was turned down, Stancu said.
Lynn Rose said she hoped the court would impose a sentence that would allow her son to be rehabilitated and hopefully reign in his mental health issues, adding a group home would be suitable for him after prison.
Stancu interjected that she felt Jared Rose should receive treatment but also pay the consequences of his crimes.
Despite the violent crime, Jared Rose’s family said they weren’t giving up on him.
“He’s not beyond redemption,” Lynn Rose said.
