Alaska News

Jury to begin deliberations in Rogers murder case

The evidence is questionable, the star witness -- the defendant himself -- isn't credible, police are sloppy, and the forensics is shaky, defense attorney David Weber told a jury Monday in the closing arguments of Christopher Erin Rogers' trial for shootings in Anchorage that killed a man and left two people injured.

Rogers has been convicted of killing his father and seriously injuring his father's fiance in Palmer in December 2007.

He confessed to police and admitted during trial that afterward he shot and killed Jason Wenger, a graduate student, because he wanted to steal his car. He also admitted shooting Liz Rumsey, who was walking alone on a Westchester Lagoon bike trail, because he was worried she was calling police, and to shooting Tamas Deak, because Deak fought back when Rogers was trying to steal his car.

But, Weber told the jury, Rogers's confessions were made up in an act of self-destruction. "Suicide by jury," he said. Rogers told investigators he heard alien voices that told him what to do. Clearly, he didn't hear aliens. He made that up, just like he fabricated other information, Weber said. The confession was too sketchy to prove anything beyond a reasonable doubt, he said.

Without the confession, what other evidence did the prosecution have? There were bullets linking each death to the gun that police found with Rogers when they arrested him. But Weber tried to undermine the ballistics expert Robert Shem. Weber said Shem's methods had been challenged by forensic experts, and he called the methods "subjective, unproven science."

Rogers also is charged with attempted murder for shooting at police. He confessed to trying to kill officers when they finally caught up with him after he stole Deak's car. He initially said he tried to fire his gun but it didn't go off. Weber said that aside from the dubious confession there was no evidence he even had the gun in his hand.

Weber said police got sloppy with their investigation because they thought Rogers would be convicted in the Palmer case.

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"Corners? These can be cut," he said police were thinking.

If the jury believed the prosecution, he said, projecting a picture of the Brooklyn Bridge with a "For Sale" sign, then he had a bridge he'd like to sell them, too.

Prosecutor Adrienne Bachman urged the state Superior Court jurors to use common sense. Confessions are rarely perfect. Defendants minimize and leave things out, she said. The police followed procedure. Shem, a longtime forensics expert, was careful with the evidence and linked the three shootings to Rogers' gun. Even without the confession, there is enough proof from witnesses, victims and forensic evidence to link Rogers to the crimes, she said.

"The defendant wants to you believe that he is either crazy or a liar," she said. "In fact, he is just a murderer."

The jury began deliberating late Monday.

Find Julia O'Malley online at adn.com/contact/jomalley or call 257-4591.

By JULIA O'MALLEY

jomalley@adn.com

Julia O'Malley

Anchorage-based Julia O'Malley is a former ADN reporter, columnist and editor. She received a James Beard national food writing award in 2018, and a collection of her work, "The Whale and the Cupcake: Stories of Subsistence, Longing, and Community in Alaska," was published in 2019. She's currently writer in residence at the Anchorage Museum.

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