Archived News

Court upholds two life sentences for DeKalb man

The Supreme Court of Georgia announced Jan. 23 that it has unanimously upheld the murder convictions and consecutive life sentences given to a DeKalb County man in the disappearance and murders of two young men.

After two cold cases were solved in 2002, Eric Rogers was convicted in 2010 for the murders of 15-year-old Mark Birmingham, who was killed in 1991, and of 18-year-old Darnell Patterson, who was killed in 1995, according to a court summary. Rogers was accused of befriending the two teenagers and enticing them into sexual relationships that both ended with the teenagers’ deaths.

In 2000, after Rogers befriended and then attacked another teenager who later escaped, Rogers was arrested, convicted of aggravated assault and sent to prison. While there, in 2002, Rogers’ adult nephew, who allegedly had been sexually abused by Rogers as a minor, went to police and led them to the wooded spot behind Rogers’ DeKalb County house where Rogers had buried Birmingham’s body.

According to the prosecutors, headed by DeKalb District Attorney Robert James, the evidence showed that “Eric Rogers is a sexual predator who, using the same methodology, sexually abused and murdered or attempted to murder available young Black males from 1980 through 2000, when an uninterrupted span of imprisonment finally ended Rogers’ pattern of criminal conduct,” the summary stated.

Man shot on Fairington Road

A man is listed in stable condition in a local hospital after being shot at the Fairington Club Apartments on Jan. 23, according to police.

The shooting occurred at 12:35 a.m. in the parking lot at 5201 Fairington Road, police said.

There is no known motive for the shooting but the DeKalb County Police Department has strong leads on a suspect, according to police spokeswoman Mekka Parish.