Plea Entered for Accused Serial Killer

In his first formal appearance in a Florida courtroom since his extradition from Kentucky, accused serial killer Glen Rogers stood silent during arraignment Tuesday as a judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.

Rogers, suspected of killing four women in a cross-country rampage that began in Van Nuys, is charged in Florida with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Tina Marie Cribbs, whose body was found in a Tampa motel bathtub in November. Rogers, 33, was extradited last week from Kentucky, where he was captured driving Cribbs’ car six days after she was discovered dead.

Rogers’ attorney, public defender Joan Corses, told Hillsborough County Circuit Court Judge Diana Allen that she will challenge the extradition. Another hearing will be held within 30 days.

“It [the extradition] is like a kidnapping,” Corses said. “We have to fight one battle at a time, and that’s the battle that’s on the plate right now.”

The extradition took place after the Kentucky Court of Appeals denied Rogers’ attempt to remain in that state, where he faced no murder charge.

Rogers’ Kentucky defense attorney, Ernie Lewis, said Florida authorities whisked his client out of Kentucky in the middle of the night to avoid the chance of the extradition being blocked by an appeal.

Lewis had filed a motion to keep Rogers in Kentucky--but he did so by mail. The motion arrived in the clerk’s office hours after Rogers boarded a police plane to Florida.

Rogers is charged with first-degree murder, robbery and auto theft in the death of Cribbs, 34, and is also wanted in California and Louisiana. Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles has agreed to extradite Rogers to one of the other states if Rogers avoids the death penalty in Florida.

The judge in Tampa set a pretrial conference for July 8. Hillsborough County State Atty. Karen Cox said a trial would probably begin no earlier than the end of summer.

Rogers is charged with second-degree murder in Louisiana for allegedly stabbing Andy Jiles Sutton in Bossier City in November.

In California, he is charged with murder in the September slaying of Santa Monica resident Sandra Gallagher, whose body was found outside the Van Nuys bar where she and Rogers met.

In Mississippi, Linda Price, 34, was found stabbed to death in her apartment bathtub in November. Jackson police said she and Rogers had been living together for several weeks. Rogers has not been charged in that case. Mississippi authorities said they want to wait until he is tried in another state.

Rogers also was investigated in the death of an elderly roommate in his native Ohio, whose decomposed body was found wrapped in a sheet in an abandoned Kentucky cabin. No charges have been filed in that case.