Bellevue man who killed man outside North Shore's Tequila Cowboy pleads guilty to 3rd-degree murder

In the hours leading up to his fatal stabbing of a Black man on Pittsburgh’s North Shore, Joden Rocco sent a picture of his boots to his friend and called them “Carolina (racial epithet) stompers.”

In another message that night, Rocco wrote, “This is not a game that we do. We need to be able to beat these (racial epithet) up.”

And then later, after a Black bartender at McFadden’s gave him a glass of water, Rocco said, “Thanks, (epithet.)”

Thirty minutes later, Rocco killed a 24-year-old Black man who was out with his friends.

Rocco, 28, of Bellevue, pleaded guilty Thursday to third-degree murder and possessing an instrument of crime.

He will be sentenced on June 2 by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Jill E. Rangos. The plea did not include an agreement as to sentencing, and the victim’s family is expected to ask the court to give Rocco the maximum penalty of 20 to 40 years in prison.

The defense will ask for less, arguing that Rocco was defending himself when he stabbed Dulane Cameron Jr. that night.

Assistant District Attorney Emma Schoedel said Cameron had been out with two friends on Aug. 19, 2018. After leaving the Tequila Cowboy bar before 2 a.m., they encountered Rocco while walking along North Shore Drive.

Rocco had been at the strip club Spearmint Rhino and then went to McFadden’s on the North Shore, where he was kicked out after using the racial epithet toward the bartender, Schoedel said.

Once outside, the prosecutor said, Rocco chanted “USA” and threatened to kill two Middle Eastern men and told them, “Go back to your country.”

When the McFadden’s manager came outside to try to calm the situation, Schoedel said Rocco struck him in the throat and left.

It was then that Rocco encountered Cameron, who was walking with his two friends and two women they had been talking to on the street.

Schoedel said Rocco told the women, “You two look too good to be talking to them.”

The women also heard him use a racial epithet and then saw Rocco grab one of the men by his hair.

Cameron and his friend fought to get Rocco off, and Rocco left before reappearing again in front of them. A fight ensued.

In a 911 call made at 1:59 a.m., the caller said that three Black men were beating up a white man. Rocco was able to get away, and a few minutes later, Schoedel said he appeared shirtless outside of Tequila Cowboy and was denied entry. He then started fighting again with Cameron, punching him, the prosecutor said.

Schoedel said a witness would have testified that they heard Rocco yell, “You want to pull a knife?”

After that, Rocco, who had pulled a folding knife from his pocket, stabbed Cameron in the neck, Schoedel said. An officer working off-duty at Burn saw Cameron stumble forward, with blood spraying from his neck. He collapsed a short distance away and died at the scene. Schoedel said an autopsy showed that Cameron’s left carotid artery and jugular vein were cut.

Rocco ran away, but was taken into custody a little more than an hour later after he approached a police officer asking for a ride home.

The knife, which had Cameron’s blood on it, was found hidden in bushes at Stage AE, Schoedel said.

Throughout Thursday’s plea hearing, Schoedel emphasized Rocco’s racist comments that night. Once the prosecution finished summarizing the case against Rocco, Rangos asked Rocco if he agreed with Schoedel’s summary.

While defense attorney Casey White responded that Rocco “may not agree to some of the details” and noted that the stabbing occurred “during the course of a fight,” Rocco said, “I am, in fact, guilty.”