Tally for machete wielder: 498 years

PALMER — By the time his final court hearing had wrapped up Monday, Christopher Erin Rogers Jr.’s 2007 killing spree had garnered him a staggering amount of prison time — 498 years, all-told.

Palmer District Attorney Roman Kalytiak said Monday that Rogers received 189 years and 90 days for murder, attempted murder, theft, vehicle theft and cruelty to animals. It was the second sentence Rogers received in two trials — one for his crimes in Anchorage and one for his crimes in Palmer.

Kalytiak said the Palmer sentencing lasted about two hours and included statements from Rogers and his surviving Palmer victim — Elann Moren.

“I think it’s the type of sentence that’s expected in this kind of case. I think it’s appropriate,” he said.

On Dec. 2, 2007, Rogers attacked his father, Christopher Erin Rogers Sr., and his father’s fiancée, Moren, with a machete while the couple slept in their Palmer home.

At the Palmer criminal trial, Moren described how her fiancée fought his son off, giving her enough time to get to the bathroom. When Rogers came for her there, his father’s dog, Bear, intervened and Rogers slashed him with the machete. That is the basis for the animal cruelty charge for which he was later convicted. Bear later succumbed to cancer, but not before being honored by the Human Society of the United States. Moren believes he saved her life.

After the Palmer attack, Rogers took his dad’s pickup, which garnered him a vehicle theft charge, and his dad’s pistol, which earned him a theft charge, and went to Anchorage.

There, he shot three people, wounding two and killing one, Jason Wenger, 27, before Anchorage police rammed a Jeep he had stolen and arrested him. In statements he made to police afterwards, Rogers said he wanted to take as many people with him as he could before police arrested or killed him. He tried to shoot at the officers who arrested him but the gun misfired.

For the Anchorage end of events, Rogers received a sentence of 309 years in prison after he was convicted of murder, attempted murder, robbery and eluding a police officer.

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