Jury hears details about fatal wounds

PALMER — The medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Christopher Erin Rogers Sr. after he was attacked by a machete-wielding killer said Rogers’ death likely came after his body was nearly devoid of blood, causing heart failure.

Christopher Young, a forensics pathologist from Portland, Ore., just happened to be in Alaska covering for the state’s regular examiner, who was Outside for a convention when the killing took place in December 2007. So, he was flown to Alaska to testify Monday.

Rogers’ son, Christopher Erin Rogers Jr. is on trial for allegedly slaying his father and attacking his father’s fiancée.

Young said toxicology tests on Rogers’ blood wasn’t available because there were no places on his body where enough blood could be found for the tests. So he and four assistants used urine and another fluid near the eye to look for evidence. Young said Rogers had trace amounts of marijuana in his system when he died.

Otherwise, Young said Rogers, thin and muscular, had no internal medical problems uncommon for a man in his 50s.

In all, Young said Rogers suffered at least 25 “chop-type injuries.” He said there could have been more, but, “I couldn’t tell because there may have been overlapping injuries.”

Chop wounds, Young said, are a combination of sharp-force trauma and blunt-force trauma, typical of what a machete might cause.

At one point, Palmer District Attorney Roman Kalytiak showed the weapon used in the crime and asked Young if the double-edged blade could have cause Rogers’ wounds. Young said it could. The machete, about 3 feet long, has a regular edge on one side and a serrated edge on the other. Young said he didn’t see any wounds that would be consistent with the serrated edge.

Rogers Sr., Young said, had one wound to the head that severed part of his ear. Another went deep enough to expose bruising on the brain. The scientist said there were two lacerations parallel to Rogers’ spine and one blow was powerful enough to damage his vertebrae. The victim also had slashes on his neck, shoulders, sides and arms, one of which severed one of the two main bones in his forearm.

Kalytiak also introduced 17 autopsy photographs that Young identified as being of the victim’s body. Those then went to the jury box, where 11 men and four women, including alternates, were given an opportunity to see them. Except for a whisper here and there, the courtroom was silent for about 10 minutes as the jurors handed the notebook of photographs from one to another.

Some of the jurors took only cursory looks at the graphic shots, but others went through the photographs one by one.

Defense attorney John Richard asked Young if the culmination of injuries was the cause of death, or would one have been enough. Young said there were individual injuries that might have been sufficient to cause death.

Rogers Jr., 29, is accused of 12 counts, including murder, for the Dec. 2, 2007, attack.

After the attack in Palmer, police say he went to Anchorage and shot three people, killing 27-year-old Jason Wenger. Rogers Jr. will have anther trial in Anchorage, where he faces multiple charges, after the Palmer case has concluded.

Contact T.C. Mitchell at tc.mitchell@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.