THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 15, 1996 TAG: 9608150352
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NAOMI AOKI, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 113 lines
When Ricky DeWayne Rogers walked out of the Norfolk City Jail almost nine years ago, he thought the murder and rape charges that put him there were behind him.
So Rogers stayed in the area and started a family. For the past five years, he has worked for the same construction company. Earlier this year, he even worked on a construction project at the jail.
But on Wednesday, Rogers was back in court on charges that he brutally raped, robbed and murdered a 28-year-old woman in her Ghent home - the same charges he faced in 1987.
A new DNA test has bolstered the case against him, prosecutor Jon R. Zug told the jury in his opening statement. Other forensic evidence, including a hair analysis and videotape of a man using the murdered woman's Visa card at an automatic teller machine, also incriminates Rogers, Zug said.
The new test found similarities between DNA in semen taken from the victim and Rogers' DNA, Zug said. That type of DNA is found in 1 out of 26,000 African Americans.
But defense attorney B. Thomas Reed told the jury that none of the prosecution's evidence can place Rogers at the scene. The DNA and hair samples have characteristics in common with Rogers' DNA and arm hairs, Reed said, but tests cannot determine that the DNA and hair actually belong to Rogers.
``We have a crime scene with considerable scientific evidence,'' Reed said, referring to the fingerprints, hair, blood and semen collected from the victim's apartment. ``We also have a crime scene completely devoid of any trace of Mr. Rogers.''
In 1987, Rogers was charged in the robbery, rape and murder of Grace Elizabeth Payne. The case was the first in Norfolk in which DNA testing was used. At that time, however, DNA technology was in its infancy and the test results were inconclusive.
Forensic evidence, including fingerprint, DNA and hair analyses, could not link Rogers to the crime. One key witness died. Another changed his story at the eleventh hour.
As a result, prosecutors dropped the case, and Rogers left the Norfolk jail a free man.
Now, prosecutors say, a new DNA test fingers Rogers, 40, as the murderer. The new technology requires smaller amounts of blood, saliva or semen than old tests.
Payne, a graduate of Old Dominion University, was found dead in her third-floor apartment in the 800 block of Westover Ave. on Oct. 21, 1987. Police went to Payne's apartment after friends and relatives became concerned because she did not show up for work.
Payne's arms and legs were bound with tape and electrical cord. A sock had been stuffed in her mouth and tape was wrapped around her head. Her face was burned with lye. She was raped, then strangled and stabbed. She died from a combination of the stab wounds and strangulation.
There were no signs of forced entry, but the apartment - where Payne had lived for eight months - had been ransacked. Two guns and three bags of silver coins worth about $2,000 were missing. They have never been recovered.
Less than two weeks after the murder, police arrested Rogers. At the time, he was a part-time carpet cleaner in a business run by Payne's fiance. Rogers grew up in Pittsburgh but has lived in Hampton Roads since the 1970s.
Rogers was arrested after the fiance identified him as the man photographed by a Crestar bank camera withdrawing $300 with Payne's Visa card about 24 hours after she was murdered.
Rogers told police he was riding a TRT bus at the time of the murder. He described the bus driver as a black woman who could identify him. When police checked his alibi, they found the bus driver was a white woman who did not recognize Rogers.
Investigators hoped that DNA from blood and semen samples taken from the victim's body, fingerprints found on the knives or hair collected from Payne's bed would place Rogers at the scene of the murder. They didn't.
The results from the DNA tests and fingerprint and hair analyses were all inconclusive. The FBI could not positively identify Rogers as the man in the video from Crestar's automatic teller machine. The image was too fuzzy, and the man in the video kept his head down.
Then the prosecution lost two witnesses. One was killed during a domestic dispute. The other, on trial for arson, recanted, claiming police offered him a deal to testify.
Prosecutors declined to pursue the case, leaving open the possibility that he could be tried later.
In 1991, Rogers was arrested, and later acquitted, on a separate rape charge.
A female cab driver and her friend picked up Rogers and another man in Portsmouth on Aug. 8, 1991.
According to testimony, Rogers and his friend forced the two women into a house on Campostella Road in Norfolk and raped them at knifepoint.
Rogers admitted having sex with one of the women but said she had consented. He was convicted of sodomy but acquitted of rape and abduction.
Since 1991, Rogers has stayed in Norfolk. He was working as a crew foreman at the S.B. Ballard construction company in February when he was arrested again in Payne's death.
Payne's fiance and the first police officer to arrive at the crime scene testified Wednesday for the prosecution.
The trial is expected to last through Friday or Monday. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
In 1987, Ricky DeWayne Rogers was charged in the rape, robbery and
murder of a woman in her Ghent home. Prosecutors declined to pursue
the charges at the time, leaving open the possibility of a retrial.
KEYWORDS: MURDER RAPE ASSAULT ARREST
TRIAL by CNB