Defendant Tells How He Killed Roommate

Rodney Scott Hoogland, a Fullerton murder defendant who claims he was a battered victim, told a hushed courtroom Wednesday how he struck his alleged tormentor and roommate over the head with a tire iron, cut his throat and several days later dumped the body down a mine shaft.

In graphic detail, Hoogland told a Superior Court jury in Westminster how he grabbed a tire iron and struck David Wayne Alexander, 28, a former nightclub bouncer and body builder, who was last seen Dec. 10, 1985. Hoogland said he then grabbed a butcher knife, cut Alexander’s throat and later tried to suffocate him with a sleeping bag.

When Hoogland then testified that he wanted to kill Alexander to put him out of his misery, Deputy Dist. Atty. Melvin L. Jensen asked: “Did you ever hear of paramedics? You could have called them.”

In a soft voice, the slightly built defendant answered, “I had decided that it was the only way I could have survived.”

According to the prosecution, Hoogland committed premeditated murder, a gory death that included dismemberment, and, therefore, is guilty of first-degree murder.

But Hoogland is arguing that Alexander’s homicide was justifiable, “an end to a violence-prone bully,” said Hoogland’s attorney, Gregory W. Jones.

Hoogland’s battered-victim defense is unusual for a male defendant but not rare in Orange County. In recent years, male defendants--either as a result of unhappy homosexual liaisons or incest--have offered similar arguments.

This case is unusual, however, because Hoogland has denied that any sexual relationship existed.

The trial before Judge James A. Jackman is in its third week and now in the defense phase. It is expected to conclude this week.

From previous testimony, the jury has learned that the men had roomed together for six months in a Garden Grove apartment when they attempted to start a belt buckle manufacturing and sales business. When that fell through, a film script became their next project.

But during that time, Hoogland was beaten several times, according to testimony from witnesses. When Hoogland threatened to move out, Alexander told him repeatedly he would kill him, according to testimony.

Alexander was a body-building instructor at a Westminster health spa and a former Mr. Universe contestant.

On the witness stand Wednesday, Hoogland said Alexander constantly “lectured” him and insisted on criticizing and deriding him because he “was stupid.”

A diary kept by Hoogland said Alexander had, on many occasions, “psychoanalyzed” the defendant to help “heal his mind. To correct his mistakes.” The diary is punctuated with references to frequent arguments.

In court Wednesday, while being questioned by Jensen, Hoogland admitted that he and a companion who later pleaded guilty to being an accessory to murder had planned Alexander’s murder--a crucial point to the prosecution’s contention of premeditation--but abandoned those plans and instead, killed Alexander after Hoogland “freaked.” That companion, Gerald Champion, is awaiting sentencing for his role.

At first, Hoogland and Champion, a 17-year-old high school student who knew both men, planned to hide at the Garden Grove apartment, overcome Alexander and pull a sheet over his head and hit him with a hammer, Hoogland said.

But on the night of the murder, Alexander came home early, before they had completed their plans.

“(So) Jerry hid in the bathroom with the sheet,’ Hoogland said.

When Alexander walked down a hallway toward the bathroom, Hoogland “freaked,” he said.

“I said to myself, ‘Oh my God!’ I became really frightened that he would discover the murder attempt. He would know what I was thinking. David could always look into my head,” Hoogland said.

Hoogland grabbed a tire iron and struck Alexander a “couple of times” and also cut him with the knife. After Alexander died, they moved the body to the bathtub, he said. Hoogland said he cleaned the apartment and drove Alexander’s car to a shopping mall parking lot and left it there.

That night, Champion and Hoogland removed evidence from the scene, including the knife, the tire iron and bloody clothing, and dumped them at various locations in Orange County, he testified.

Hoogland said he returned to the apartment several days later and put Alexander’s body in a large cardboard box and placed it on his pickup truck. He checked into a motel and invited Champion to the motel room where they “drank beer and watched television” while discussing what to do with the body.

Hoogland said that he bought a hatchet and that the next day he and Champion drove to the Mojave Desert, where they found an abandoned mine shaft near a rock quarry.

Hoogland said he removed Alexander’s shoes and sweat pants and then attempted to sever the head. They left the area after the body was dumped inside the mine shaft.