'The monster' gets a two-year slap on the hand in daughter's death

Eve Tarmey, left, (Courtesy photo) and her mom, Jazzmyn Rood (WMUR image)

CONCORD - The mother who went to the bathroom to fix her hair and makeup knowing her 17-year-old daughter was going to snort heroin - a snort that turned out to be fentanyl and proved fatal - got away with a two-year sentence on Friday in federal court in Concord.

The light sentence, which was expected but sparked outrage nevertheless from family members inside the courtroom, will be followed by a single year on parole.

The tragic death of Eve Tarmey, a well-liked and stunningly beautiful Spaulding High School senior, had both riveted and revolted the city of Rochester and its residents for more than a year as an instance of maternal malevolence and indifference that will live in infamy.

Jazzmyn Rood, 42, pleaded guilty earlier this year to a single charge of misprision of a felony, which means concealing knowledge and giving false information to police about her daughter's death.

The contemptuous and callous behavior exhibited by Rood regarding her daughter's demise became apparent from the moment police arrived at Room 117 at the Riviera Motel around 5 a.m. on Oct. 17, 2015, to find her boyfriend, Mark Ross, performing CPR on Tarmey hours after she was already dead.

The couple had apparently cleaned up the room in an attempt to clear evidence of their drug use rather than call immediately for medical help to try to save the teenager.

Ross, who was sentenced to at least 20 years for providing the drug to Tarmey, had actually found her slumped over the bed she shared with him and her mom around 3:30 a.m., according to police affidavits.

According to one affidavit, Ross immediately then began removing the "rigs" - needles, spoons and other heroin paraphernalia - from the room and disposed of them in a trash receptacle in a common outside area of the motel.

The image of Ross performing CPR on a dead Tarmey to save his own skin is just one of many gruesome revelations gleaned from the affidavit, which also sheds light on the final hours of Tarmey's short life and how the suspects likely changed their stories as a police investigation ran its course.

Rood, of 11 Barker Court, Rochester, Ross of 479 Gonic Road, The Riviera Motel, Room 117 where Tarmey died; and Leslie Aberle, 32, of Salisbury, Mass were all charged in the Oct. 17 death of Tarmey, a vivacious youngster who worked part time at IHOP, loved music and shopping.

In their initial statements to police that fateful day, Ross said he paid Aberle to drive him and Tarmey to Methuen, Mass., so she could meet with a boyfriend. When the boyfriend didn't show they returned home to the Riviera. Later he awoke around 4 a.m., found Tarmey in the shower and believed she had overdosed from snorting heroin, the affidavit states. He said at the time he found several straws on her as he administered CPR.

Rood's initial statements were all compatible with Ross'.

Four days later on Oct. 21, however, Ross met with a detective at the Rochester Police Department and added to his initial statement that he also went to Methuen to get heroin from a dealer, but that Tarmey wasn't aware of that, according to the affidavit.

When they got back to the motel, he said Tarmey was hysterical about not meeting up with her boyfriend, so Aberle broke off a piece of heroin she'd been carrying in her bra and told him to give it to Tarmey "to calm her down." According to the affidavit, Ross placed it on the table and told Tarmey "to do what she normally does." He said Tarmey crushed it and snorted it with a straw.

Ross then said he awoke around 3:30 a.m., found Tarmey slumped over the bed she shared with Ross and her mom, and knew immediately she was dead, according to the affidavit.

The next day, Oct. 22, police got a search warrant and rummaged through the trash bin where Ross said he had dumped the heroin paraphernalia. Police found several bags containing needles, including a white plastic "Market Basket" bag identified by Ross.

According to the affidavit, before he finally called 911 on Oct. 17, he called his Massachusetts dealer and threatened to kill him if he sold "bad shit" to his daughter.

Ross was asked if an hour and a half sounded accurate between the time he found Tarmey dead and he called 911.

"Probably, I don't know," he said, according to the affidavit.

Then on Oct. 23 a Rochester Police detective spoke again with Rood, who said she knew Ross was going to pick up heroin when he went to Massachusetts, but the plan was for her daughter to stay with the boyfriend and not return to Rochester, according to the affidavit.

Rood added that when they got back to the Riviera Motel everyone initially got injected with heroin except for Tarmey, who was still distraught about not meeting up with her date. According to the affidavit, Ross told her he would "calm (Tarmey) down" and "told her to go into the bathroom."

She further stated she didn't see her daughter take heroin, but suspected she was given some.

According to the affidavit, Rood said Ross didn't tell her he'd given Tarmey heroin until after police had left following their initial interview the day she died.

Testimony at a probable cause hearing in November 2015 revealed that Rood "was almost 100 percent" sure her boyfriend gave Tarmey heroin the night she died inside a Rivera Motel room.

A Rochester detective testified that Rood told him Ross likely gave her daughter the drugs while she went into the bathroom to fix her hair and makeup, apparently because it upset her to see her daughter snort heroin.

Aberle is expected to receive the same sentence of 20 years in January for providing the drug to Tarmey.

Misprision of a felony could have drawn a three-year term. On Friday Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Feith pushed for 32 months jail time, but the judge settled on a two-year sentence.

Rood, who declined to speak at Friday's sentencing, has already served a year in jail so she will be freed in 12 months.

An online petition last December to keep her in jail after she was approved for bail with conditions while awaiting trial on state charges referred to her as a monster. Rood was widely reported as a longtime prostitute who advertised on backpage, a website that platforms for a number of illicit sexual services.

The petition received thousands of signatures and soon after a Strafford County Superior Court judge struck down her bail request to keep her in jail.

The feds then ended up taking over the case in January because the only charges that could have been filed by the state that appeared winnable were child endangerment, punishable by only a year in jail.