Anchorage Daily News

PALMER -- For the garden variety trial, attorneys can wrap up jury selection in a day. The Christopher Erin Rogers murder trial is hardly one of those.

The quest for an impartial jury will enter its third day on Monday. And then however long it takes to find 12 jurors and three alternates with open minds and no preconceived ideas based on what they've heard or read about this sensational case.

Any murder trial is problematic and a machete murder tends to stick with people, even those who turn up their noses at newspapers or watch television news just for sports and weather. Which is why it's proving harder than usual to find a jury of Rogers' peers.

A gray-haired woman in a purple vest and red shoes was one of those who filed through Judge Vanessa White's courtroom Thursday to answer questions about what they knew. She knew enough that defense attorney John Richard was worried.

"You think it would be difficult for you to be a clean-slate, fair and impartial juror?" he asked.

"I think it would," she replied.

"If you were sitting in his position, would you want you to be on the jury?"

"Probably not."

She was excused.

In addition to murder, Rogers is facing multiple counts of assault and other charges in two separate trials, this first one in Palmer, the second in Anchorage next year. All stem from a 26-hour rampage that police say left his father and a college student dead and sent three others to the hospital, either cut up or shot.

Since the law chased Rogers down in a stolen car almost exactly one year ago, he's been in jail on $2 million bail.

He was there in the Palmer courtroom Wednesday and Thursday as jury selection dragged on, rocking quietly in his chair, staring mostly at the table in front of him and occasionally at the ceiling.

Thin to begin with, Rogers now seems downright skinny. His curly hair is gone, buzzed down to nubs. His beard, trimmed along the sides to the edges of his chin, has grown thick and long.

On Wednesday, when Judge White and other key players introduced themselves to the standing-room-only pool of potential jurors, Rogers gave them a polite wave and a nod.

Among them were people who'd already found him guilty, and at least one who's a firm believer in the death penalty and said she's sorry Alaska doesn't have one.

They were among the first to be excused.

One of the key issues both prosecution and defense worked over during initial screening was how much, if anything, these people knew about what happened after Rogers allegedly traded the machete for a gun and headed into Anchorage. That's a separate case, and they don't want those charges to taint this trial.

A woman who knew nothing of Rogers' story told the court she thought she could be a fair juror. Except for one problem. While taking EMT training she saw some graphic images that made her faint.

"There will be a bunch of graphic images," Richard warned her.

That changed things.

She was excused.

Yet another, called to jury duty for the first time, had it set in her mind that Rogers was guilty. What's the point of squabbling over details? she wanted to know.

Earlier, Palmer District Attorney Roman Kalytiak had put it like this:

"It might be a more detail-oriented decision, such as what type of crime was committed and what state of mind did the person committing the crime possess."

In murder trials, state of mind usually signifies the difference between first-degree and second-degree or even manslaughter.

"I don't want to ruin the punch line," defense attorney Richard told her, "but what the juror's job is going to be in this case is not a whodunit, it's what they were thinking about when they did whatever it was that you find out they did."

She, too, was excused.

Still, there were quite a few in the jury pool who hadn't heard a thing, or very little, about the case, people who were out of town when it happened or who make a point of avoiding the news.

Once enough jurors pass the fairness test, opening statements will begin, hopefully early next week.

Meanwhile, Rogers isn't quite ready yet.

He needs a pair of size 13 1/2 dress shoes to wear for the trial. Slip-on only because laces aren't allowed. His lawyer offered to lend him a pair of corduroy pants. And his mother, who is watching jury selection with her court approved "therapy dog," wants to buy him a nice dress shirt. She hopes a check she's expecting comes in time.

Given how long things are taking, it should.

Find Debra McKinney online at adn.com/contact/dmckinney.

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