Texas Judge Labels Killer ‘Psychopath’ in Long-Dormant Murder Case Sentencing

A 26-year-old cold case was solved last year when Texas resident Terry Rose was sentenced to prison for the 1999 killing of his ex-girlfriend, Kimberly Langwell. Rose, 68, pleaded guilty to the killing before trial and received 40 years in prison as part of a plea agreement.

However, the judge who sentenced him said she was not satisfied with the punishment. During the hearing, Judge Raquel West called Rose a "psychopath" for killing his ex-girlfriend and hiding her remains beneath a concrete slab in his home.

“There's just certain things that I can't even look past to not point out. Who isn't a psychopath that kills someone that they once cared about and buries them in their house and lives on top of them for 25 years? I would think that's the definition in Webster's dictionary of a psychopath,” West said during the sentencing.

She added that she wished Rose had not pleaded guilty, saying she believed he deserved more than 40 years in prison. “There is a part of me that wishes I had not accepted this plea agreement and that we had gone to trial last week because I do think a jury would have given you life for 99 years. I actually do,” the judge stated.

West reiterated that she would have given Rose a longer sentence. “If I had 50, I’d give you 50. If I had 60, I’d give you 60,” she said, adding that she hopes the sentencing will finally bring closure to the victim’s family.

Langwell was 34 when she went missing on the evening of July 9, 1999. She was last seen leaving her job at a local pharmacy in Beaumont, Texas. Later that night, her car was found abandoned in the parking lot of an Eckerd Dr*g store. Rose became a suspect early in the investigation but maintained his innocence.

Investigators did not find sufficient evidence at the time, and the case went cold for more than two decades. In 2023, investigators reopened the case. A major breakthrough came the following year when one of Rose's friends, David Wayne Wiley, came forward with a tip.

Wiley told detectives that Rose had confessed to fatally shooting Langwell and burying her beneath his home. He also admitted that he had lied to investigators in 1999. “[I was] afraid that I was involved in something that was gonna have me in deep trouble,” Wiley said, citing it as the reason for staying quiet for 25 years.

Authorities executed a search warrant at Rose's home in June 2024 and used ground-penetrating radar to search the property. Investigators later removed a concrete slab and discovered Langwell’s remains. Rose is now serving his sentence in a Texas state prison.