A woman was convicted for a second time today of beating her ex-husband and his new wife with a sledgehammer with the help of her teenaged lover – a case a prosecutor likened to the plot of a “Lifetime movie.”
After about three hours of deliberation, a Lake County jury found Sandra Rogers guilty of attempted murder, home invasion and solicitation of murder.
“Bleeding, bashed, bludgeoned is how this defendant left Rick Rogers and Angela Gloria the morning of May 19, 2003,” Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Danielle Pascucci said during her closing argument this afternoon. “The defendant’s fury for her ex-husband festered over time. She hated him -- wanted him dead.”
Defendant Sandra Rogers had pleaded guilty to attempted murder in 2004 to the near-fatal beating in the couple’s Lincolnshire home. But last year – seven years into her prison sentence -- a Lake County judge allowed Rogers, now 56, to take back her guilty plea and go to trial after she claimed she admitted to the crime because she was misled about evidence against her.
Sandra Rogers showed no emotion as the verdict was read but began to tear up moments later.
Her ex-husband Rick Rogers, flanked by his wife and daughter Robin, mouthed the words “thank you” to jurors upon hearing their verdict. He and his daughter applauded softly as the jury filed out of the courtroom.
Sandra Rogers, who had already served 7 years of her 30-year sentence, stemming from her earlier guilty plea, now faces the prospect of an even longer prison term when she’s due to be sentenced next month.
Then, she could face up to 60 years in prison, though she will presumably be given credit for time served.
Her co-defendant, Jonathan McMeekin, who was 17 at the time of the attack, also pleaded guilty to attempted murder and has served about half of a 20-year sentence. McMeekin was the boyfriend of Sandra and Rick Rogers’ 14-year-old daughter, Robin, but admitted from the witness stand that he was at the same time sleeping with Sandra Rogers.
He testified against Sandra Rogers this week.
Though McMeekin testified that Sandra Rogers was his accomplice and wielded the sledgehammer, the defense has claimed it was Robin Rogers who was McMeekin’s actual accomplice. During her closing argument, defense attorney Gillian Gosch pointed to what she called a lack of physical evidence pointing to her client.
Most importantly, she said, police determined that the attacker entered through the basement window that led to the bedroom of Robin’s older sister, Amber. Amber testified that the window had been locked and the blinds were shut when she went to bed.
“The only explanation is that someone in that house opened the window,” Gosch said.
Gosch also said that there was no explanation for the fact that Robin, who said she called 911 from her father’s room while holding her stepmother’s bloodied hand, did not have any blood on her when police arrived.
“This was a room of carnage,” Gosch said. “Angela’s hand was caked in blood.”
Gosch then read from a piece that Robin wrote about her father before the attack, which the prosecution had sought to chalk up as normal teenaged angst.
“Why don’t you die and rot in hell,” Robin’s writing stated. “You never know, Satan may be able to learn a few things from you. I’ll take you down mother (expletive).”
“This is not normal 14-year-old behavior,” Gosch said.
Robin Rogers also testified and denied involvement in the attack.
As for her client, Gosch acknowledged that Sandra Rogers hated her ex-husband and did say on multiple occasions that she wished he was dead. She also admitted that Rogers was not a great parent.
“This isn’t about all of that,” she said. “This is about what happened on May 19, 2003. To convict Sandy, you have to believe Jonathan McMeekin. There is not a shred of physical evidence that Sandra Rogers was ever there.”
In rebuttal, Assistant State’s Attorney George Pappas held up the piece of writing by Robin, calling it the weapon of a 14-year-old. He then held up the sledgehammer, calling it the weapon of “a woman filled with rage, consumed by jealousy and overwhelmed by desperation.”
Pappas explained the window entry by saying that the defendant entered the window and then opened the blinds after she came in. He said that McMeekin, who was 6 feet tall and 225 pounds, would not have fit through the window.
He explained the lack of blood on Robin by reminding jurors that she testified that she was careful not to step in any of her father and stepmother’s blood.
As for the 911 call that Robin placed and that the jurors heard, Pappas said: “Unless Robin’s going to be awarded some kind of Academy Award, that is a scared, terrified 14-year-old girl.”
As to the lack of physical evidence, Pappas urged jurors not to “reward Rogers for planning effectively - for wearing gloves, for getting rid of her clothes, for wearing a mask.”
Sandra Rogers faces up to 60 years in prison if found guilty of attempted murder.
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