Rogers Plans to Testify at Murder Trial

LOS ANGELES —  Accused serial killer Glen Edward Rogers will testify in his own defense, his family and attorney said Thursday.

Rogers is anxious to tell his side of the story, his family said, about what happened the night of the slaying of Sandra Gallagher, who was found strangled and burned in her pickup truck in Van Nuys in 1995.

Rogers will tell the jury that another man, a convicted murderer, confessed to him to committing the crime, said his defense attorney, Jim Coady. Coady has already told jurors that the slaying was committed by Istvan Kele, a convicted killer and aquaintance of Rogers.

Rogers “has got a different story than what we’ve heard so far,” said Coady, declining to elaborate.

Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti’s office said prosecutors were ready, should Rogers take the stand.

“Right now, we’re proceeding with trial and plowing ahead,” said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for Garcetti’s office.

Putting an accused criminal on the stand is an unusual move because it opens up the possibility of damaging cross-examination by the prosecution.

It’s even more unusual in Rogers’ case, because he has been accused, though not tried, of murder in Mississippi and Lousiana. Authorities in those states have issued arrest warrants for him in connection with the deaths of two women.

Rogers has already been convicted and sentenced to death in Florida for the November 1995 murder of Tina Marie Cribbs, a 34-year-old mother of two. He did not testify in the Florida case.

His brother said Rogers would avoid testifying in cases in other states, but would answer all questions about what he did on the night of Sept. 28, 1995, when he met Gallagher at a Van Nuys beer joint.

“My brother may have a series of other problems where he may or may not be guilty,” said Claude Rogers, 49, a Palm Springs real estate agent. “But things [in this case] just don’t add up.”

Rogers is accused of murdering Gallagher, a 33-year-old mother of three, and then going on a killing spree that earned him the moniker “the Cross-Country Killer.”

In trial testimony Thursday, Cristina Walker, who briefly lived in Rogers’ Van Nuys apartment, said Gallagher and Rogers were part of a group of people who went out celebrating at McRed’s and another local bar. Walker testified that she awoke in the early morning hours after the night out to see Rogers standing in her room. Walker said she asked Rogers what had happened to Gallagher.

“She’s dead,” Rogers said, according to Walker. Walker said she grew afraid of Rogers and fled the apartment.

Under cross-examination, Walker said she had seen Kele several times in Rogers’ presence.

Coady told jurors at the trial’s opening that Kele, convicted and sentenced to life in prison for killing a man during a 1972 bank robbery, was the real killer.

Kele was trying to recruit women for a check fraud scheme with Rogers and has told police that he helped Rogers dispose of the body, Coady said.