Photo: E!
Jackie Jerome Rogers, 36, has been sentenced to 26 years to life in state prison for the brutal Dec. 2016 murder of a nurse and former reality star.
According to prosecutors, Rogers used a hammer to strike 36-year-old Lisa Marie Naegle, a former star of the showBridalplasty,eight times. The two, who had been involved in an affair, were sitting in his car at the time of the attack.
According to apress release from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, Rogers took Naegle back to his home, “buried her body in his backyardand hit her two more times with the hammer to ensure she was dead before covering her body with dirt and manure.”
On September 24, 2018, jurors found Rogers guilty of first-degree murder.According to NBC Los Angeles, defense attorney Jeremy Lessem told jurors that his client had committed a crime of passion — that Rogers was in love with Naegle, but ultimately “broke” from feeling he was being “toyed with.”
Rogers was a former student of the married Naegle. Before the murder, Rogers and Naegle attended a friend’s birthday party together at a restaurant in Torrance, California. This was the final time Naegle was seen alive.
Days later, Rogers was arrested. He confessed to killing Naegle and brought authorities to his backyard, where she was buried in a shallow grave.
Brad Graverson/The Daily Breeze via AP, Pool
Before his arrest, Naegle’s familyconfrontedRogers about her whereabouts after reporting her missing.
The family suspected that something was wrong when Naegle didn’t show up to work. But when they shared their concerns with authorities, they were told a person must be missing for 72 hours before an investigation could commence.
Naegle’s family then reached out to Rogers. In 2016, Naegle’s sister Danielle Naegle-Kaimoana told PEOPLE that Rogers first claimed he had driven Lisa Marie to the party but left without her when he got tired.
“We said to him, ‘How could you leave someone [drunk and] go home alone? How could you let that happen?'” Naegle-Kaimoana said.
Naegle’s family later received surveillance footage from the Torrance restaurant showing Naegle and Rogers exiting the birthday party together.
Courtesy Naegle Family
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“He started shaking,” Naegle-Kaimoana recalls. “I wanted him to leave but at the same time I wanted him to admit [that he knew more].”
When Rogers spoke to the LAPD later that day, he confessed.
In 2010, Naegle appeared onBridalplasty,an E! television reality show where bridescompete for plastic surgerytreatments before their wedding.
source: people.com
