PALMER -- A jury this afternoon is deciding whether 29-year-old Christopher "Erin" Rogers Jr. meant to kill his father and his father's fiancee when he took a machete to them as they slept in their Palmer home.

After a party celebrating the couple's first anniversary together last December, prosecutors say, Rogers unsheathed the blade, walked into their bedroom and attacked his father and his fiancee along with their dog, Bear.

Christopher "Chris" Rogers Sr. died in the house from more than 30 machete blows. Fiancee Elann "Lennie" Moren, badly injured and with one arm barely attached, took shelter in a bathroom, according to testimony during the trial. Moren survived, though she walks stiffly, her leg braced, and still suffers from brain damage and other permanent scars of the attack.

Rogers faces trial next year on charges he continued his rampage in Anchorage, where he allegedly shot and killed one person and wounded two others.

The Palmer jury began deliberating just before noon today after attorneys presented 90 minutes of closing arguments. The trial began Dec. 3; a lengthy jury selection process took days due to the sensational nature of the killing.

The primary decision facing jurors is not whether Rogers killed his father but whether he is guilty of first- or second-degree murder.

The difference is intent. First-degree murder means Rogers intended to kill his father, even for a second. But jurors don't have to find the crime was premeditated. Motive can be considered but isn't necessarily a factor either.

Second-degree means Rogers intended serious injury or his conduct was "substantially certain" to cause death.

State sentencing guidelines call for a 99-year maximum for both crimes, but first-degree murder starts with a 20-year minimum while second-degree starts at 10.

Jurors may also decide whether Rogers is guilty of attempted murder or assault for his actions against Moren.

Palmer District Attorney Roman Kalytiak presented jurors with literally a pile of evidence to back up his contention that Rogers meant to kill them both.

Kalytiak stacked slick blue plastic evidence bags on a table:footprints including one on the bed where the slashing began, bloody clothes, the machete in a long box.

Rogers told police in Anchorage he meant to kill the couple, Kalytiak said.

"Every chop he made, every time that machete was swung, every time it made contact with a human body, is continuing evidence of his intent," he said.

Rogers' only stated regret to police, the DA continued, was that he didn't use a gun -- it would have been quicker and less bloody.

Even Rogers' own attorney admitted his client was guilty of second-degree murder.

But public defender John Richard told jurors it's "not good enough" to think Rogers probably meant to kill his father and Moren.

Richard told jurors to ignore Rogers' statements to police in Anchorage, in which he said aliens told him to act and made clear his hatred for his father and Moren.

Instead, focus on testimony from Moren and her friends that Rogers was trying to become part of the family and liked to grow flowers, though he did have a problem taking responsibility for his actions.

Rogers was staying with the pair. They served as third-party custodians for him on a 2006 drunken-driving charge.

Richard reminded jurors that Rogers used a machete -- something designed "to hack bushes" -- rather than a gun, an inherently deadly weapon.

"Yes, you know it is intended to kill. This is not like that," he said, his near-monotone suddenly almost a shout. "This is not like that. This is horrible. But you cannot know what was in his mind."

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