Loved ones remember fallen deputy as killer pleads guilty. ‘Our family has broken apart’ 

Jessica Boutte stood in court and addressed her father’s killer.

He was “a brother. A cousin. An uncle,” she said of Hancock County Deputy Lt. Michael Boutte, who was shot and killed in the line of duty two years ago.

He was a son.

He was a grandfather of seven.

“Since his death,” Boutte said, “our family has broken apart.”

In a long-awaited moment of justice on Monday, Joseph Michael Rohrbacker pleaded guilty to capital murder in the 2021 killing of Boutte. Boutte’s family and old colleagues gathered in Harrison County Circuit Court in Gulfport to bear witness to the killer, who will now spend life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Through quiet sobs, his children spoke of grief that consumes them.

“My father has always been and always will be my hero,” said Michael Boutte Jr. “He taught me how to be a man.”

Boutte responded on Feb. 1, 2021, to a home on Earl C. Ladner Road in the Necaise community in Hancock County. He was the first deputy on the scene of a 911 call that reported a suicide threat.

But before Boutte could even leave his car, Rohrbacker shot him. Boutte was 57.

His death shocked family and friends and led to outcry from many on the Coast. Through grief, his colleagues have remembered Boutte as a caring, smiling veteran.

They have called him “exceptional,” have said he forged friendships with people he met on the job and went beyond his calling – like when he rented a pressure washer to clean mold from an old woman’s house, or when he devoted hours to a search for a lost turtle.

He was a 20-year veteran of law enforcement. He had moved to Mississippi in 2012 and worked for the Picayune Police Department, Picayune School District Police and Hancock County Sheriff’s Office. He was also an Air Force veteran who deployed in Operation Desert Storm.

“It’s heartbreaking,” said District Attorney Crosby Parker. “I wish I could say this helps with closure.” But “closure is going to take a long, long time.”

“He was just a wonderful person,” said Hancock County Sheriff Ricky Adam.

He would help people with flat tires, whether he was on duty or not. He was fair and honest. And “kind,” Adam said. “Very kind.

“He’s just one of those guys -- you gotta love him.”

His children sat among a group of law enforcement officers in court. They said their father was someone they depended on, someone who took care of their children and their grandfather -- who since Boutte’s death has also passed away. Jessica Boutte said some days, she struggles to even get out of bed. She stopped working for a year.

“I feel so lost without him,” she said. He would often take her car, fill it with gas and get the oil checked when she visited him, all before she even woke up. “He loved me and he made sure that I knew it,” she said.

“The love he had for his family had no end,” Boutte Jr. said. He paused to gather himself.

“There is nothing in this world” he said, “that can replace something of that magnitude.”

This story was originally published July 31, 2023 at 4:03 PM.