Killer left suicide note after stabbing brother
CONVICTED murderer David Rogers who stabbed his brother to death over a family feud left an apparent suicide note apologising for killing his “baby” sibling.
Police found Rogers’ letter in a Northumbria hotel after he fled Birmingham having stabbed brother Thomas in the heart in the West Midlands city on August 22 last year.
Rogers was convicted of murder while a third brother, Samuel Rogers, of Sutton in Ashfield, was cleared of the same charge but found guilty of manslaughter.
And a senior detective said the men’s mother had “lost three sons” in the tragedy.
David was found in woodland near the town of Haltwhistle days after Thomas was stabbed as he sat in a car in Bristol Road, Birmingham Crown Court was told.
The killing happened hours after David sent Thomas messages threatening to kill him.
A Ford KA carrying the men pulled in front of a Vauxhall Astra that Thomas was a passenger in on Mill Pool Way, just off Bristol Road, in Edgbaston.
CCTV caught David and Samuel lunging through the passenger window at their brother, while Samuel filmed the attack on his phone.
They left their brother for dead and travelled up north in attempt to escape justice.
David, 33, and Samuel, 31, previously pleaded guilty to possession of an offensive weapon.
David, of Nora Street, South Shields, and Samuel, of St Michael’s Street, Sutton-in-ashfield, will be sentenced on October 7.
Macauley Welby, 22, of no fixed address, and Ryan Hurt, 22, of Peel Crescent, Mansfield, who had also been accused of murder, were found not guilty at trial.
Det Insp Stuart Mobberley, from the West Midlands Police Homicide Team, said: “It took just 30 seconds and one single knife wound to kill Thomas. And now two people will spend years in prison for their part in this crime.
“A mother has lost not just one, but three sons as a result of this heinous crime.”