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PALMER — With two days already spent picking a jury, attorneys in the Christopher Rogers murder trial say they’re just getting started.

Rogers, 29, faces 12 felony charges, including murder, in his Palmer case. Prosecutors allege he killed his father, Christopher Erin Rogers, Sr., and seriously wounded his father’s fiancé, Elann Moren, with a machete Dec. 2, 2007.

In a trial set for Jan. 20 in Anchorage, Rogers faces 10 more counts, also including murder. According to police, after leaving Palmer, he went to Anchorage and shot three people, killing one — Jason Wenger, 27.

Rogers’ attorney John Richard said Thursday that after having spent two days interviewing jurors one at a time he didn’t expect to finish by the end of the day. And the interviews are just the first portion of the process. After that, he said, they’ll do group interviews of a panel of jurors.

“It’s necessary in a case like this,” Richard said about the exhaustive jury selection process.

The problem is that the case has had so much pre-trial publicity, with numerous articles running in various newspapers and stories airing on television, that lawyers are concerned potential jurors may have already made up their minds.

The court also needs to find out what potential jurors have heard without other jurors in the room to avoid spilling the beans to those who haven’t already read about the case.

“We’re trying to figure out which jurors have already read so much about this case that they can’t sit on the jury,” prosecutor Roman Kalytiak told one juror.

Hearing answers written on pre-trial questionnaires Wednesday and Thursday, the lawyers’s fears could be warranted.

“He should be in jail for the rest of his life,” one juror wrote.

“I don’t know how he could not be guilty of a crime everyone knows he committed,” another wrote.

Richard on Wednesday let a few jurors in on what his defense will be.

“He’s going to be guilty of something,” he told one man.

Superior Court Judge Vanessa White told another juror it looked to her like the defense would likely center around what Rogers was thinking that night as opposed to whether he perpetrated the attack.

Rogers will not appear in court today. Jury selection is expected to resume Monday.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.

More online

For more information and past coverage of this case, visit the Frontiersman online at www.frontiersman.com. Use the “Advanced Search” option, select a date range from Dec. 2, 2007 to now and enter the keyword “Rogers.”