Family feud ended in murder with 1 brother dead and 2 locked up
Sibling jailed for bizarre murder in broad daylight
TWO brothers are beginning long jail sentences for unlawfully killing their younger sibling, who was stabbed in the chest following a family feud.
David Rogers, 33, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 18 years after being found guilty of murdering Thomas Rogers, while 30-year-old Samuel Rogers was jailed for nine years for manslaughter at Birmingham Crown Court.
Passing sentence, Judge Melbourne Inman QC told the men: “You are brothers and the victim was your younger brother. Thomas was only 26 years of age when he was killed, with much of his life before him.”
The judge, who told Samuel Rogers that he would have to serve twothirds of his nine-year term before being considered for parole, accepted that all three brothers had had a difficult childhood.
He also accepted that David Rogers had not intended to kill his brother and that Thomas’s treatment of their mother had contributed to the rift that tore the family apart.
But he told David and Samuel, who are currently sharing a jail cell: “You were both armed with large knives. This was a determined attack which you, David, travelled a considerable distance the day before to commit.”
A four-week trial was told a stab wound penetrated Thomas Rogers’ heart when he was attacked by his brothers while sitting in the passenger seat of a car in Mill Pool Way, off Bristol Road, in Edgbaston, on August 22 last year.
The killing, which took place a day after windows were smashed at Samuel Rogers’ Nottinghamshire home, was the culmination of a feud said to have been sparked by a “number of reasons” which had caused the victim to fall out with several relatives.
At the start of the trial, prosecutor Michael Burrows QC told the court: “David Rogers told the police he wasn’t involved in killing his brother – that he was elsewhere.
“That was a lie and I understand he has now changed his account and accepts he had a knife and accepts that he unlawfully killed his brother, but didn’t intend to kill him or cause really serious injury.”
Jurors were told Samuel Rogers accepted he was armed with a knife but claimed he was unaware his older brother had harmed anyone.
Still images from CCTV cameras at a care home were shown to the jury, including one of a Ford Ka which blocked the path of the black Vauxhall
Astra Thomas Rogers was sitting in.
Jurors also heard that the victim was pronounced dead in hospital shortly after being stabbed, and that David Rogers, of South Shields, Tyne and Wear, was arrested in a wooded area in Haltwhistle, Northumberland.
Samuel Rogers, of Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, was arrested in the early hours and told police he had been in Nottingham.
In a victim impact statement, the siblings’ mother Carole Rogers said she believed her older sons would not have left Thomas to die if they had known how badly injured he was. The mother stated: “My life changed forever when Thomas, my youngest son, died.
“I am heartbroken, I am devastated. I wish I could turn the clock back but I can’t. In the blink of an eye I have lost all three of my sons. My whole life has been shattered into pieces and no one can fix it for me.”
Mrs Rogers, who the court heard had been treated ‘appallingly’ by Thomas, said she had a ‘permanent physical pain in her chest’ after losing her youngest son. I can smell Thomas but the pain is just too much for me. I am unable to go into his bedroom. I loved him so much – no
matter what we went through I loved him.
“I struggle to understand how it came to this. None of them wanted it to end like this. They will always carry this with them and never be free.”
She continued: “I am confident if they knew how badly injured he was they would never have just left him there to die. Despite everything, they would do anything for each other.”
She said that she was suffering from depression and sleepless nights. “This has destroyed and devastated the whole family. If Thomas had spoken up for help maybe things wouldn’t have come to this point.”