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.
  
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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.
Comments
3 comment(s)kd wrote on Dec 18, 2008 10:37 AM:
Palmer resident wrote on Dec 17, 2008 1:11 PM:
Spankles wrote on Dec 16, 2008 2:43 AM: