Condemned Killer Faces Trial in California

Glen Rogers, already condemned to die in the Florida electric chair for the stabbing death of a 34-year-old Tampa, Fla., woman, will stand trial in Los Angeles for the murder two years ago of a woman in Van Nuys, an official with Gov. Pete Wilson’s office said Wednesday.

Under the agreement between California and Florida officials, Rogers, 34, will be brought to California sometime in the coming weeks to face charges he strangled Sandra Gallagher, 33, a Santa Monica mother of three, after she celebrated a lottery win at McRed’s Cocktail Lounge in Van Nuys.

Authorities said the state of California and the county of Los Angeles will pay to transport Rogers to California and back to Florida as well the cost of the trial, estimated by court officials at $9,459 per day.

“We couldn’t be more pleased about Florida’s willingness to entertain our extradition request,” the senior state official said. “It’s an unusual situation because it’s a high-profile case and Florida has already secured a death-penalty judgment.”

But that fact brought criticism from those who questioned the expense to taxpayers.

“It seems like an obvious waste of taxpayers’ dollars,” said Kris Vosburgh, executive director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. “He can only be put to death once. But if he ends up on death row in California, he’s more likely to die of old age.”

That opinion was disputed by Wilson administration officials who insisted that extradition was worth the price not just for the Gallagher family but as a hedge should Rogers’ death sentence be overturned in Florida.

“I think the governor has made it a priority to obtain justice for the families of crime in California,” the senior official said. “It’s an insurance policy.”

Rogers was arrested Nov. 13, 1995, in Lee County, Ky., after a 15-mile car chase.

In addition to the killings of Gallagher and Tampa bar server Tina Marie Cribbs, Rogers has been linked to slayings in Louisiana, Mississippi and Kentucky.