Fox Chapel's Adam Rosenberg gets life in prison for 2 killings

Christian Moore-Rouse volunteered with the Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, at the Jubilee Kitchen and at UPMC Presbyterian and UPMC Montefiore.

Jeremy Dentel spent his free time working with Humane Animal Rescue of Pittsburgh, teaching coding to students at Carrick High School and serving as an adviser for his University of Pittsburgh fraternity, including hosting huge Thanksgiving dinners each year at his Baldwin home.

Both men were killed months apart by Fox Chapel’s Adam Rosenberg, a 23-year-old man who said he wanted to become a serial killer.

Rosenberg, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and psychotic disorder, pleaded guilty but mentally ill to two counts of first-degree murder for killing Moore-Rouse and Dentel.

On Friday, he was sentenced as part of a plea agreement to two terms of life in prison without parole, with the sentences to run concurrently. By pleading guilty but mentally ill, Rosenberg will be assured of mental health treatment during his incarceration.

Moore-Rouse, 22, of Verona, had befriended Rosenberg when they met at Community College of Allegheny County.

On Dec. 21, 2019, Moore-Rouse took a ride-share to Rosenberg’s home in Fox Chapel, where police say Rosenberg shot him in the back of his head, dragged his body down the driveway and hid it a few feet off the road.

He wasn’t found until March 3, 2020.

Rosenberg met Dentel, 28, through a dating app and messaged him for a couple days. Then, on Feb. 15, 2020, Rosenberg went to Dentel’s home on Baldwin’s Vernon Avenue, entered the house, shot Dentel in the head and left.

Dentel’s parents found him the next day.

Rosenberg was charged with two separate counts of criminal homicide, and after his arrest, spent months at Torrance State Hospital because he had been deemed incompetent to stand trial.

At Rosenberg’s plea hearing in April, there was extensive testimony from a forensic psychiatrist, who described Rosenberg’s mental health history — including four hospitalizations in the year leading up to his arrest — and his belief that he was compelled to kill by Satan.

At that hearing, Moore-Rouse’s mother, T. Lee Rouse, objected to the proposed plea agreement because it did not call for Rosenberg to serve two consecutive life sentences.

She repeated her objection on Friday.

“Adam executed two amazing young men in two separate and totally unrelated crimes,” she said. “He deserves two consecutive life sentences for each victim. His sentence should be ironclad.”

Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Bruce Beemer told both victims’ families on Friday that he would not accept the plea if he didn’t believe it would ensure Rosenberg spends the remainder of his life in prison.

“If I believed the offer created a loophole allowing for anything other than life without parole, the court would reject it,” Beemer said. “To get out some day, (the parole board) would have to commute both, period. End of story.

“Life is life whether the sentence runs concurrently or consecutively.”

After the judge accepted the plea on Friday, the rest of the hearing focused almost exclusively on the lives lost in Rosenberg’s crimes.

“At least today, the focus was where it should have been — on the lives you took, you snuffed out, in the most callous, cowardly way imaginable,” Beemer said just before pronouncing Rosenberg’s sentence.

The hearing featured testimony from the victims’ elementary school teachers, college advisers and professors, friends and loved ones.

Dentel taught himself computer programming in the Brentwood Borough School District and went on to the University of Pittsburgh. He became the web editor for the Pitt News during his freshman year and hoped to create a website development company.

He already had a full-time job by his senior year and bought his own home and remodeled it, said his parents, Jack and Tina Dentel.

Their son loved animals and had two cats and a rescue pit bull. He worked so closely with Humane Animal Rescue of Pittsburgh that the organization started a memorial medical fund for animals in his honor, the family said.

Dentel looked for the good in the world and always tried to see the best in every situation, friends said.

Just before Dentel was killed, he learned that he was going to become an uncle. He bought his brother and sister-in-law baby clothes for Christmas in 2019, and his family found more baby clothes in his home after he died.

“The thing that hurts most is that you took an uncle away from my son,” said Joshua Dentel. “He doesn’t get to celebrate my son’s life with me.”

Josh Dentel spoke directly to Rosenberg.

“You have an utter disregard for the value of human life,” he said. “You contribute nothing to society. You only detract from it. You’re a coward who can’t even look me in the eye when I talk to you.”

Rosenberg chose not to speak on his own behalf. Although his parents attended the hearing, they also did not speak.

Moore-Rouse was known to be compassionate and kind to people who were marginalized, his family said. He had taken classes at Duquesne University and enrolled at CCAC.

He had dreams of someday opening an HVAC company with his best friend.

Moore-Rouse golfed and rode horses and was a fun-loving person with no enemies, his mother said.

“Everyone who knew Christian liked him,” she said. “Christian is guilty of nothing more than showing kindness and friendship to someone who did not deserve it.”

Moore-Rouse was happy-go-lucky and always had a smile.

“He had the confidence of somebody who has been loved his whole life,” said Ria Buford, his English professor at CCAC. “He was so noticeably gentle. I don’t know any other young men like that.”

Jack Ellenberger, who was Moore-Rouse’s Big Brother through the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, met him in 2010 and continued a close relationship until his death. He described him as open-hearted, open-minded and trusting.

“He was a pretty awesome kid,” he said.

Moore-Rouse’s sister, Dontesha Rouse, told the court her brother had not yet begun to live his life when he was senselessly killed.

“The death of my little brother makes me fear for the lives of my own two sons,” she said. “It makes you feel like you have to cherish every moment because you never know when it will be your last.”

During her statement to the court, T. Lee Rouse expressed frustration with the police who investigated when her son went missing, alleging that they failed to take her concerns seriously or listen when she suggested that they track down a man named “Adam” he had become friends with.

“If police had only set aside their racial bias for a moment … to look for a missing young Black man, Jeremy would still be with his family,” she said.

Rouse, who had argued that Rosenberg ought to face the death penalty for his crimes, noted that the DA’s office in the last two months has filed four capital cases against Black men charged with criminal homicide.

“It’s a shame the police gave so much deference to the Rosenbergs’ ZIP code,” she said.

Mike Manko, a spokesman with the DA’s office, said that the law prohibits prosecutors from seeking the death penalty against the mentally ill.

“District Attorney Zappala has always believed that the most important voice in the room is the voice of the victim and the victim’s extended family. (T. Lee Rouse) is a mom who will always grieve the loss of her son and (Zappala) respects that,” Manko said.

“During the preparation for trial, Ms. Rouse, along with her counsel, was informed that the law requires that mental illness be considered by the court in the disposition of these matters,” Manko added. “(Zappala) will not seek the death penalty against a defendant who has a mental illness. This individual will serve the remainder of his life in prison and will receive the appropriate treatment.”