By Mark Hansel
NKyTribune managing editor
David Dooley was formally sentenced Thursday in the May 2012 killing of Michelle Mockbee.
A Boone County jury found Dooley, 45, guilty of murder and tampering with physical evidence in March and recommended a sentence of 43 years in prison.
David Dooley looks to his wife and mother after he is formally sentenced to 43 years for murder and tampering with physical evidence in the 2012 killing of Michelle Mockbee (photos by Mark Hansel)
Circuit Judge James R. Shrand could not have sentenced Dooley to more time than that recommended by the jury, but he could have reduced the sentence.
He did not.
“I’m going to follow that recommendation from the jury,” Schrand said. “To the charge of murder, I’m going to sentence you to 38 years. To a charge of tampering with physical evidence, I’m going to sentence you to five years.”
Schrand ruled the sentences will run consecutively.
In accordance with Kentucky law, someone convicted of murder is eligible for parole after serving 75 percent of a sentence or after 20 years of incarceration.
Dooley has been in prison since being arrested in 2012 and that time counts toward his parole eligibility.
He will be eligible for parole consideration in 13 years, but if he is denied and survives to serve the entire sentence, he would be 88 years old at the time of release.
Jennifer Schneider, Mockbee’s sister, was allowed to deliver a victim impact statement prior to sentencing.
Jennifer Schneider, Michelle Mockbee’s sister, delivered a victim impact statement at the sentencing of David Dooley Thursday. Schneider said the 43 years Dooley was sentenced to for killing Mockbee in 2012 was not enough for an act of pure evil.
Schneider’s voice cracked several times as she told Schrand how the loss of her sister has left a tremendous void in the lives of her family members.
“We will never know what truly happened that day,” Schneider said. “The only people who truly know are David Dooley and my sister, Michelle Mockbee. And only one of them still has a voice. The one who still has a voice, almost seven years later, continues to be a coward and hide behind his lies.”
Schneider said she knew Schrand was bound by the jury’s sentencing recommendation, but felt the punishment did not fit the crime.
“Forty-three years in prison is not enough for the act of pure evil,” she said. “Michelle was a true victim who did not deserve to have her life cut short.”
Laura Rodgers, a close friend of Mockbee’s, was also permitted to deliver a victim impact statement.
She said from the day she got the call from Mockbee’s sister telling her that her friend had been killed, she has not felt safe.
“I don’t feel safe by myself, I don’t feel safe at home and I certainly don’t feel safe when I walk into my job,” Rodgers said.
Rodgers will miss many things about her friend, she said, including their almost daily conversations.
“The thing I miss most about her is her hugs,” Rodgers said. “There was just a joy about her.”
After Dooley was convicted last month, Michelle’s daughter Madelyn Mockbee, now 14, said the hugs are also what she misses most about her mother.
Michelle Mockbee, a Fort Mitchell mother of two, was killed at the Thermo Fisher Scientific plant where she worked in May, 2012. Thursday, Circuit Judge James R. Schrand formally sentenced David Dooley, who was convicted of murder in the killing, to 43 years in prison (provided photo).
Dooley was first convicted of murder in Mockbee’s death in 2014 and was sentenced to life in prison. That conviction however, was thrown out and a new trial was ordered after it was determined evidence that may have aided in Dooley’s defense was withheld from his attorneys.
Mockbee was bludgeoned to death shortly after she arrived at work at Thermo Fisher Scientific in Boone County in the early morning hours of May 29, 2012.
Dooley was employed to do custodial work at the facility as an outside contractor.
Prosecutors say Dooley and his wife were falsifying time cards and he killed Mockbee because she found out about it.
Dooley was seen on surveillance video leaving the facility for more than 30 minutes shortly after Mockbee was killed.
Prosecutors maintained that the killer had to be someone inside the facility and Dooley was the only one who left that morning. They say he left to get rid of evidence.
Jurors deliberated for seven hours and asked to examine some of the evidence introduced at trial before returning a unanimous guilty verdict last month.
Dooley did not speak at the sentencing and his attorneys also declined to comment. He has maintained his innocence and his attorneys are planning to appeal his conviction.
He mouthed the words, “I love you,” to his wife, Janet Dooley, as he was led from the courtroom.
Child pornography charges still pending
Schrand set a pretrial conference for May 23, on two charges Dooley faces related to child pornography.
Dooley was indicted by a Boone County Grand Jury on August 21 on charges of use of a minor in a sexual performance, a Class B Felony, and possession of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor, a Class D Felony.
Assistant Attorney General Jon Heck, who served as special prosecutor in the Mockbee case, will also represent the Commonwealth in the child pornography charges against David Dooley.
According to grand jury testimony, Boone County Sheriff’s Detective Tracy Watson said she was instructed to reopen the case against Dooley in June of last year.
In the grand jury transcript, Watson indicates the charge involves allegations of sexual abuse by Dooley “back in 2004 through 2007.” The child, now an adult, was seven years old at the time of the alleged assault.
Assistant Attorney General Jon Heck, was assigned as a special prosecutor in the Mockbee retrial. He will also serve as special prosecutor in the child pornography case.
Dooley’s attorneys, Deanna Dennison and Jeff Lawson, argued malicious prosecution and retaliation because Dooley was granted a new trial in the Mockbee killing. They asked to have the case dismissed.
Their response to the indictment reads, in part:
“The Commonwealth’s actions and the circumstances that led to the new indictments exhibit a presumptive retaliatory motive to deter, or punish the Defendant for exercising his legal rights.”
The initial investigation of sexual misconduct by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, based on allegations from family members, was closed in 2005.
In her grand jury testimony, Watson indicated the case was revisited in 2014, when the child, then 14, disclosed that Dooley had abused her. Watson stated the case was not pursued at that time because Dooley was facing “some serious jail time” if convicted in the Mockbee killing.
The prosecutor indicated to the grand jury in June that the indictment was being pursued because of the possibility that Dooley might be acquitted in the Mockbee killing.
“When the substantial prison sentence was no longer necessarily a reality, the family decided to go forward again.”
The child pornography trial is expected to take about two or three days, since there is no physical evidence and only a few witnesses will be called.
Schrand set a tentative trial date for late July.
Contact Mark Hansel at mark.hansel@nkytrib.com
