Mother Of Slain Animal Control Officer Meets Face To Face With Accused Killer

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - The mother of the Sacramento County animal control officer murdered last week met face to face with the accused killer Tuesday, and she said he showed no remorse.

Charlotte Marcum-Rush spoke with Joseph Corey, 65, at the Sacramento County Jail, where he's being held without bail. Corey is accused of shooting her son, Roy Marcum, on Nov. 28 at Corey's former home, which he lost to foreclosure.

Marcum, 45, was there to pick up Corey's dogs at Corey's request after he was evicted the day before.

CBS13's Ron Jones asked her if Corey apologized.

"No, he didn't say anything," she said. "All he was worried about was his dogs. 'Are they being taken care of?' Yes, they're being taken care of. That's what my son wanted. My son was out there to help his dogs."

Galt police say the shotgun blast came through the front door. Roy never saw it coming.

"He's a coward. He's coward, that's all I have to say," she said. "Only a coward would shoot through a door."

She said Corey then offered a possible chilling confession, telling Charlotte he was hoping to kill an officer that day.

"He says he saw his uniform and thought he was an officer so he shot," she said.

She said she saw no emotion from Corey, just a blank stare.

"I feel sorry for the guy because he doesn't have compassion for human life," she said. "He just looked like, 'Why are saying this to me? Why are doing this to me?'"

Charlotte always knew her son's job as an animal control officer was dangerous, but she never thought it would kill him.

"It's like somebody's taken part of your life and put a hole in it and there's no way of getting it back," she said.

"He was out there to take the animals in and make sure they had a good home," she added. "He would have worked with the guy. Roy is the type, he would have taken them into his own home."

The grief has kept Charlotte from sleeping and eating, mainly because she believes his death could have been prevented.

"Five hundred dollars is what a bullet-proof vest costs," she said. "What's a life? It's worth more than a bullet-proof vest."

She's not just mourning, she's on a mission. Charlotte is now pushing for a new law to protect every animal control officer in the state with a bullet-proof vest.

The idea actually came from her son, who pushed for protective vests before he died.

"Animal control was his life, and the animals that he protected," she said.

Now, she wants to protect other men and women who may unknowingly become the targets of senseless, deadly violence.

"I don't want any other family, no other family going through what we're going through," she said.

A funeral for Roy Marcum is planned for Saturday at the Liberty Towers Nazarene Church in Sacramento.