LEE COUNTY, Fla. – An attorney for one of the men convicted for the murder of Bonita Springs doctor Teresa Sievers has filed an appeal asking the court for his acquittal.
Jimmy Rodgers was found guilty of second degree murder without a weapon and misdemeanor trespassing for the June 2015 killing.
Dr. Sievers was found bludgeoned to death with a hammer in her kitchen. Investigators believed her husband, Mark, orchestrated the murder, hiring his best friend, Curtis Wright, along with Rodgers, to kill Teresa.
In the appeal brief, Rodgers’ attorney, Samantha Stevins, argues three major points: an inconsistent verdict, the court’s denial of an expert witness, and a lack of physical evidence.
A jury originally cleared Rodgers of first degree murder, but found him guilty of the lesser charge, second degree murder without a weapon. His attorney argues you can’t be found guilty of murder without a weapon, when there is clear evidence Sievers was murdered with a hammer — insisting it doesn’t add up.
The judge called the verdict conflicting during sentencing, claiming the jury may not have believed Rodgers had anything to do with the crime but was rather in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Later in the brief, Rodgers’ attorney argues the court denied him his expert witness and pushed the trial forward without allowing his team to defend him fairly.
“The unwillingness of the trial court to continue the trial stripped Mr. Rodgers of his Goliath and left him fighting for his life blindfolded with one arm tied behind his back,” Stevins said in the brief.
Rodgers’ attorney also pointed out the entire murder case is extremely circumstantial. No fingerprints, blood, DNA, emails, cell phone records, or bank statements connect Rodgers to the planning or participation of the homicide.
The only evidence in the case that could connect him to the crime, were statements from an admitted murderer, Wright, and from his former girlfriend, who had been getting paid $1,600 a month, for at least three years, to testify in the trial.
Rodgers’ girlfriend led investigators to a pair of coveralls on the side of the road in Missouri she claimed she helped Rodgers dispose of after the murder. Dubbed. the”murder coveralls” in the trial, they had no blood, DNA, or any trace of Rodgers’ or Sievers on them. A cell phone was also found near the coveralls, but there was never any trace of Rodgers to the phone, including cell records or DNA.
The Attorney General’s office will respond to this appeal, then a panel of judges will look over the brief, and make a decision about whether or not Rodgers’ conviction sticks, he would be released, or potentially get a new trial for a new charge.
Sievers’ husband was found guilty of first degree murder. He is currently sitting on death row while his attorneys fight for his acquittal. Mark has always maintained his innocence.
Wright made a plea deal with the state which required him to testify in both Wright and Rodgers’ trials. In return, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Rodgers was sentenced to life in prison.
The average murder appeal takes two years to be decided on.
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