TAMPA, Fla. - Suspected serial killer Glen Rogers, formerly of Hamilton, was sentenced Friday to the electric chair for slashing a Tampa woman in a motel bathtub.
Mr. Rogers, 34, stood shackled before Circuit Judge Diana Allen as the judge followed a unanimous jury recommendation in the Nov. 5, 1995, death of Tina Marie Cribbs, whom Mr. Rogers met at a bar. Mr. Rogers is also accused of murder in Louisiana, California and Mississippi and is suspected of killing Hamilton resident Mark Peters, 71, and leaving his remains at a Beattyville, Ky., family farm.
In November, 1995, Ms. Cribbs, 34, agreed to drive Mr. Rogers to his motel and was never seen alive again. Mr. Rogers fled the motel in Ms. Cribbs' car and was arrested after a police chase in Kentucky. The sentence surprised few former co-workers at Diamond Cab on Ludlow Street in Hamilton, where Mr. Rogers drove a cab for the former Ohio Yellow Cab Co. in 1991-93.
"He did it. He has it coming to him," said driver Mark Crouch, 62, a resident of Hamilton's Fourth Ward neighborhood who once invited Mr. Rogers to his home for dinner.
Claude Rogers, formerly of Hamilton and now a Palm Springs, Calif., real estate agent, was at the hearing to support his younger brother. "He's a . . . big dumb kid," he said. "It should have been second-degree murder and life in prison."
Mr. Peters, 73, of Hamilton, took in Mr. Rogers as a tenant in 1993 before disappearing. His decomposed body was found in 1994 in an abandoned cabin that Mr. Rogers' family owns near Beattyville. The case is still open, Hamilton Det. Dan Pratt said Friday. Mr. Peters' family had no comment.
Mr. Rogers was charged in Florida with first-degree murder, robbery and grand theft. The jury found him guilty May 7 and voted for the death penalty two days later.
Since appeals in death-penalty cases are automatic, execution might not happen for 14 years, said Prosecutor Lyann Goudie.
Florida defense lawyers said they expected the death sentence to be overturned upon appeal. John Eckberg contributed to this report.
