Glen Rogers Convicted of Van Nuys Murder

A jury convicted spree killer Glen Edward Rogers of his second murder Tuesday, then began hearing testimony on whether he should live or die.

Rogers, 37, already sentenced to death in Florida, sat immobile as the clerk announced he had been found guilty of another first-degree murder. His brother and mother, both in the courtroom, declined comment.

The family of Sandra Gallagher, whose strangled and badly burned corpse was found near Rogers’ Van Nuys apartment in September 1995, also declined comment. One of Gallagher’s family members was led weeping from the courtroom.

As the trial moved into the penalty phase after the guilty verdict, the eight-woman, four-man Los Angeles County Superior Court jury learned for the first time that Rogers was accused of killing a total of four women over three months in 1995. They had previously heard testimony on three murder victims.

“The only appropriate penalty for a man who has taken all of these lives in this manner is the most severe we have in this state--the death penalty,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Pat Dixon.

That fourth alleged murder, of Linda Price, 34, in Jackson, Miss., around Halloween 1995, was remarkably similar to the others, according to testimony.

Rogers met Price over beers, as he did the other women. And, like the other three women, Price was in her 30s, with red hair. She was found slain, like one of the other women, in a bathtub.

At no time, Dixon said, has Rogers expressed sorrow for any of the killings.

“The defendant has no remorse, none,” Dixon said.

Rogers’ public defender, Jim Coady, made no opening statement and declined comment.

In an unusual move, Rogers took the stand during the trial to declare his innocence. In Florida, as he was being led away after being sentenced to death, Rogers shouted to reporters that he was innocent in the murder of Tina Marie Cribbs, 34.

Dubbed the Cross Country Killer, Rogers began his spree killing on Sept. 28, 1995, the same day that Gallagher, a 33-year-old mother of three, won $1,200 in the lottery, authorities say.

The two crossed paths at McRed’s bar in Van Nuys. The next day, her car was found off Victory Boulevard, her burned corpse inside.

After killing Gallagher, Rogers fled to Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida, killing a woman in each state, authorities say.

He already has been sentenced to die in Florida for the murder of Cribbs, a mother of two, who was found stabbed in a bloody bathtub in a Tampa hotel room in November 1995.

He has also been accused, though not charged, with the fatal stabbing of Andy Lou Jiles Sutton, 37, in Louisiana.

Rogers was captured in Kentucky after a high-speed car chase that ended not far from his family’s cabin. At the time, television broadcast images of Rogers, with blond, long hair and wild eyes, fighting police as he was led away to jail.

But in court on Tuesday, Rogers wore a conservative blue suit. His beard was neatly trimmed, his hair cut above his collar. The sister of victim Linda Price, Kathy Carroll, had no trouble identifying Rogers in court Tuesday. Though she avoided his gaze during the bulk of her testimony, she pointed squarely at Rogers when asked to pick him out.

She said Price had met Rogers, a former carnival worker, at a tent where beer was served at the Mississippi State Fair.

Her sister immediately was taken with his looks, she said.

“She said, ‘Ain’t he good-looking?’ She said it over and over,” Carroll said.

Rogers and Price moved in together, briefly renting an apartment in Jackson. The last time Carroll saw her sister, the night before Halloween, the two planned for some of Carroll’s grandchildren to come over to Price’s apartment to trick-or-treat.

But on Halloween day, Price didn’t respond to repeated knocks at her door. And Rogers was gone.

Over the next few days, the family repeatedly tried to contact Price. Finally, they called the police. The officer who emerged from the room was “white as a sheet,” Dixon said. He told Carroll that her sister was dead.

“I ran to my son’s apartment and I fainted,” Carroll said.

The multiple homicides played a key role in the Gallagher case, as Dixon used them to gain a first-degree murder conviction by showing that there was a pattern to a series of premeditated killings by Rogers.

In a dramatic turn, Rogers took the stand and attempted to blame an associate for Gallagher’s death, an assertion the Los Angeles jury did not believe.

Regardless of the punishment fixed for Rogers in California, he will be returned to Florida for execution, authorities said.