Las Vegas man who killed ex-wife in front of children is sent to prison

A Las Vegas man was ordered to serve 28 years to life in prison for fatally stabbing his 40-year-old ex-wife in front of two of their children.

In handing down the sentence for the October 2014 killing, District Judge William Kephart focused mostly on the children of the 54-year-old James Joyce and Jodi Sunshine Joyce.

“The one thing I can’t get out of my mind is knowing that they were there when this happened,” the judge said. “I will tell you, though … children are resilient. It’s unbelievable what children go through and get through it. Sometimes I think the adults have a harder time.”

The children, ages 16 and 11 at the time, were not in court, but Chief Deputy District Attorney Frank Coumou called James Joyce “a nasty individual” and played a 911 call from the older child, her screams echoing through the courtroom.

“Please help me,” the girl yelled, saying had rushed out of the Silverstone Ranch home, waiting for police.

Joyce pleaded guilty in September to murder with use of a deadly weapon.

Carla Malewicz referred to her daughter as Jodi Sunshine, who she said served in the Air Force for seven years and later worked as a teacher and school administrator in Clark County.

“We are all diminished by her death,” Malewicz said. “She made the world a better place.”

The slaying in the northwest valley was the culmination of months of violent outbursts and police calls, police said at the time, and an eventual divorce.

Jodi Joyce and James Joyce had been fighting for “the past several years,” police said, and James Joyce believed she had been having an affair, according to the arrest report.

In 2014, those fights turned violent.

On July 12 of that year, James Joyce was arrested on domestic battery charges and served with a temporary protective order that lasted nine days, according to the arrest report from the killing.

After the order expired, Jodi Joyce allowed her then-husband of 21 years to move back into the house “in an attempt to work out their differences,” the report said.

But about two weeks after his July 2014 arrest, police again were called to the residence after Jodi Joyce told her husband she wanted a divorce. James Joyce became angry and said he was going to commit suicide, according to the report.

Jodi Joyce filed for divorce the next month, citing irreconcilable differences. The two argued over custody of their two children but agreed to end the marriage. The divorce became official in late September 2014.

As part of the divorce agreement, the couple would have split custody of the children, their 16-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son.

They also agreed that James Joyce could stay at their house in the 8500 block of Berkley Hall Street.

Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.