Eskalene DeBorde’s Killer gets life without parole

Ex-salesman cuts deal, avoids death penalty

Roger Eric Broadway pleaded guilty in Criminal Court Tuesday to the brutal murder, rape and robbery of Eskalene DeBorde at her West Knox County home in 2001.

To avoid the death penalty, Broadway, 23, of New York, accepted a plea agreement that sends him to prison for life without parole on the
murder charge, plus a pair of 25-year sentences in exchange for guilty pleas to charges of rape and especially aggravated robbery.
The District Attorney General’s office had served notice of intent to seek the death penalty. DeBorde’s family approved of the plea
agreement. “We give Roger Broadway life, in the memory of one who no longer lives,” DeBorde’s daughter, Elizabeth Noffsinger, said in a statement read in court. “Roger Broadway … we pray daily that God will grant you a conscience so that you will understand the depth of what you have done, and that you will have a very long time to live with this knowledge.” DeBorde, 66, was beaten, smothered and
stabbed in the throat. Her body was discovered in the living room of her Bakertown Road home by Noffsinger. Broadway, a door-to-door magazine salesman at the time, stole DeBorde’s jewelry, car and ATM card. He was soon arrested in Virginia after what prosecutors described as a “powerful” effort by the Knox County Sheriff’s Office.
Before Judge Richard Baumgartner sentenced Broadway, Noffsinger and her brother, Jim Potts, stood and sometimes held hands as she read the account of her mother’s life and the family’s trauma in dealing with the murder. DeBorde was “a mother who lost three
children in infancy, a devoted wife who lost her husband in a tragic accident over 20 years ago, a daughter who helped care for her parents through their last years,” Noffsinger said. “She was a grandmother of two … a loving sister, and aunt, and dear friend to many.” Noffsinger described a range of emotions and impacts on the family, from nightmares and sleeplessness to the many little things that serve as reminders of DeBorde’s life. “Of course, for my brother and I, the sun will come up again, but it will never come up again
for the real victim of this crime, our mother,” Noffsinger said. “… What Roger Broadway did to our mother on Aug. 20, 2001, was about control … He controlled our mother’s destiny, her future. But now, we are in control of Roger Broadway’s future …

“My family and I would like nothing better than to see Roger Broadway die for what he did to our mother,” Noffsinger continued. “However, this is the time to begin the healing process. To show mercy to someone who refused to show any mercy. To use this as the
first step in closure about losing our mother.” “We are granting Roger Broadway life, as hard as it is to do … Every time that you, Roger Broadway, wake up in that prison cell, remember that you had the opportunity and the ability to stop your actions that day. Every day
you look around your cell, remember that you had a choice … my brother and I believe that the decision to accept a sentence of life without parole is the best opportunity to be sure that you, Roger Broadway, will never have access to another innocent victim again.

You robbed us of something very precious, and we will never
forgive you for that.” During Noffsinger’s presentation, the
courtroom was still and silent except for her words. The judge was among those most moved. “I only wish I had the wisdom to say
something that could make it easier,” he said. Broadway had stared straight ahead at the judge’s bench, occasionally glancing sideways
in the direction of Noffsinger and Potts. But when she had finished, he suddenly arose, turned and faced them. During the 20 months he has already been in jail, he said, he has already reflected on his crimes.
“What I did was wrong,” he said. He said he felt he could not ask DeBorde’s family for forgiveness because he has a mother and knows
how he would feel if she was the victim. “I do feel the pain,” he said. “That is why I’m here today to accept responsibility.”

Broadway’s brief statement was spontaneous and a complete surprise to his attorneys, said one of those attorneys, Public Defender Mark Stephens. In their last meeting on Tuesday, he indicated he did not want to say anything
beyond what was required for the agreement to be approved, Stephens said. “It was heartfelt,” Stephens aid. “It was from his deepest recesses.” After court, Noffsinger described her feelings about Broadway’s brief statement as “ambivalent.”