Rogers, 29, stands accused in Palmer of 12 counts, including allegations that he killed his father, Christopher Erin Rogers Sr., and seriously wounded his father’s fiancé, Elann Moren, with a machete Dec. 2, 2007.
According to Superior Court Judge Vanessa White, who ran the proceeding via telephone, the plan is to call the jury in first thing Monday morning, have them fill out a questionnaire, then call them back Wednesday. That’s when prosecutor Roman Kalytiak and defense attorney John Richard will hammer out which 15 citizens will try the case.
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There is an issue as to whether that evidence will be allowed into the trial. Kalytiak thinks it is, Richard disagrees. The prosecutor said his preference would be to wait for a ruling from White until he’s decided whether he’ll even bring it up.
“I guess what I’m saying is the case doesn’t necessarily need to rely on those similar acts,” Kalytiak said.
But, he noted, depending on what Richard brings up, he might want to use the Anchorage end of things to rebut the defense attorney’s arguments.
“The fact that he shot at three people in Anchorage that he didn’t even know proves that the Palmer thing wasn’t just a fluke,” Kalytiak said.
Waiting for a ruling was fine with Richard, so long as Kalytiak made sure to stop Rogers’ taped statement to police short of the point where he starts talking about what happened in Anchorage.
Kalytiak mentioned that they will have to talk to Anchorage police who had to pin Rogers’ stolen car against a tree to get him to stop and arrested him with his father’s gun.
“As long as the officers know how their testimony is limited,” Richard said, that’s fine with him.
Another issue, one that Richard did not oppose, is whether there can be any mention of Rogers’ mental health evaluations. That one seems more clear-cut at this point — Kalytiak argued that it can’t come up; Richard didn’t oppose him.
The lawyers ended the hearing discussing how Rogers will be restrained at trial. Rogers will appear in street clothes rather than prison scrubs, but Richard argued he should not wear leg irons, since the jurors might be able to see them.
“If there ever was a situation where the defendant should be restrained it’s this one,” Kalytiak said. “In his statements to the trooper investigator he stated that his intention was to kill as many people as possible until he ran out of bullets or was killed himself.”
He noted that Rogers told Anchorage officers he’d tried to fire at them but the gun didn’t “click.”
“Meaning that he didn’t properly load the cylinder,” Kalytiak said.
Richard, for his part, argued that the case law on these matters seems to favor restraints only when the defendant has demonstrated in court a penchant for unruly behavior. And, in his view, Rogers hasn’t.
“Mr. Rogers, after his apprehension, was extremely cooperative with law enforcement,” Richard said. “He hasn’t caused any trouble since then except for passively declining to come to court.”
Given that the defense table in the courtroom is fully enclosed, blocking the view of Rogers’ legs from the jury box, Richard said that once a jury was seated he wouldn’t mind terribly if Rogers was restrained.
But prior to that, jurors wait for their name to be called in the viewing gallery, a vantage offering full view of the leg irons.
“I think mostly I have to say that it doesn’t seem to be necessary,” Richard said. “He won’t have a machete and he won’t have a gun.”
White said she would rule on the matter after a brief hearing Wednesday morning. Her initial assessment, she said, seemed to favor leg irons but she did share Richard’s concern about the view from the gallery.
Richard and Kalytiak agreed that they would likely have a jury seated by the Thursday. The trial would then begin either the end of that day or when the trial resumes the following Monday.
Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.
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