Kervin Rogers, lethal drug boss?: 2 hours for jury to return guilty verdicts in 3 murders
Update: It didn't take long for a jury to decide the fate of Kervin Rogers in not one, not two, but three separate murders over a one-month period in late 2009.
Big pic below.
Two hours after deliberation began, they returned with a trio of guilty verdicts.
The Rogers trial received virtually no attention prior to our post earlier today, despite the number of victims and the viciousness of the method of murder -- two shots apiece to the heads of Allisen Falk-Compton, Cheriece Knox and Robert Clarke. Moreover, Rogers, portrayed by prosecutors as a crack dealer with a gruesome approach to those who owe him money, faces a trial in June regarding a fourth homicide -- one that took the life of Roger Harris. But before then, he'll be in court on May 27, when he'll be looking at three life sentences.
Get more details in our earlier coverage below.
Original item 9:22 a.m. April 29: How could the trial of a man accused of killing three people in separate incidents (with another court date for a fourth murder case coming up) receive virtually no media coverage? Good question -- because at this writing, closing arguments are underway for Kervin Rogers, charged with a series of slayings in late 2009. Could he be dubbed a serial killer?
It depends, says Lynn Kimbrough, spokeswoman for the Denver District Attorney's Office. "If there was a textbook definition of a serial killer as someone who's murdered more than two people in a certain period of time, this might qualify. But we often think of a serial killer as someone who's done a series of somewhat random murders, and this isn't quite that."
Rogers, 26, was a drug dealer specializing in crack, according to Kimbrough, "and what the prosecution has tried to prove is that these three victims" -- Allisen Falk-Compton, Cheriece Knox and Robert Clarke -- "either because they were working for him, helping to sell his drugs, or using the drugs, all owed him money, and that was unacceptable to him. So he killed them."
Moreover, he's accused of doing so in a particularly gruesome, cold-blooded way -- shooting each of them twice in the head and then dumping their bodies.
The first case linked to Rogers was the killing of Falk-Compton, whose body was found by some railroad tracks near the 5000 block of Fillmore on December 13, 2009. Two days later, the Denver DA's office brought charges against Rogers -- and that's pretty much the last time his name appeared in the press.
Behind the scenes, however, investigators were able to link Rogers to two other previously unsolved murders -- the killing of Clarke at 3356 Blake Street on November 18 and the Knox slaying the next day. Knox was found near a dumpster between the 4300 blocks of York and Josephine.
And that's not all. On October 30, 2009, Roger Harris was found shot near the Sunrise Restaurant on East Colfax; he soon succumbed to his wounds. Adams County District Attorney's Office spokeswoman Krista Flannigan confirms that Rogers has been charged with first-degree murder in that crime as well. The trial in the Harris case is slated to begin on June 20.
Roger Harris.
In regard to the current trial, Kimbrough was present for opening arguments, in which "the prosecution said he kept his personal life and his drug business very separate. They didn't use the phrase 'double life,' but that's the impression I got. He had all the appearances of being a normal person who had a business and paid his taxes. But when he went to work and was running his drug business, he was quite a different person."
And allegedly an extremely lethal one. If he's convicted in the current hearing, he could face three life sentences without the possibility of parole. The case is expected to go to the jury soon.
Here's a larger look at Rogers' mug shot.
More from our Mile High Murder archive: "Kevin McGregor allegedly bought tacos, cigars after killing football player Todd Walker (62)."
Kervin Rogers.
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