Syracuse, NY – A Syracuse woman’s estranged husband was found guilty this afternoon of her murder, 19 years after her strangulation death. An Onondaga County Court jury deliberated Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning before finding Johnny Rogers guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Princess Thomas. He faces a prison term of 25 years to life. Judge Joseph...
Johnny RogersSyracuse, NY – A Syracuse woman’s estranged husband was found guilty this afternoon of her murder, 19 years after her strangulation death.
An Onondaga County Court jury deliberated Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning before finding Johnny Rogers guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Princess Thomas. He faces a prison term of 25 years to life. Judge Joseph Fahey set sentencing for Nov. 19.
“I am very happy. I am happy for her family. This woman finally got justice after 19 years,” First Chief Assistant District Attorney Rick Trunfio said. “And I’m really proud of the work the police did back in 1991 and the people assigned to the cold case.”
Michael Vavonese, Rogers’ attorney, said he, his client and co-counsel Masha Hunt were disappointed in the outcome. He said he needed to discuss with Rogers whether to appeal.
Thomas was 23 and seven months pregnant when her body was found Sept. 22, 1991, under underbrush and trash off South Clinton Street. Her fetus had been removed from the womb and was laid on Thomas’ neck and shoulder, Trunfio said.
Rogers, 45, was always a suspect but the case against him did not gel until December 2007, Trunfio said. That's when a former girlfriend told friends that Rogers had threatened to "do you like I did my wife" while he assaulted the girlfriend in 2001, Trunfio said. The friends called authorities, jumpstarting the investigation, he said.
Trunfio called 29 witnesses between the start of testimony Oct. 19 and Monday. Some of them told the jury that Rogers had told them he had killed Thomas.
Prosecutors also established through DNA tests that the baby Thomas was carrying was not Rogers', Trunfio said. Rogers had told people that he didn’t want Thomas to be with anyone else, and that combined with the removal of the fetus pointed to jealousy as a motive, Trunfio said.
While awaiting the verdict, Vavonese said he believed the prosecution had failed to provide evidence or eyewitnesses that showed beyond a reasonable doubt that Rogers was connected with Thomas' murder. Prosecutors also had failed to rule out other suspects, he said.
Several of the prosecution witnesses were in jail. The defense tried to establish during cross-examination whether they thought they would get favorable treatment of their cases by testifying against Rogers. The jury had the testimony of one of those witnesses read back to them Wednesday.
“Our position was that the jailhouse witnesses were not worthy of belief,” Vavonese said. “The prosecution vigorously presented those alleged admissions successfully.”