View Full Version : Court Files from the 1989 Rogers' Murders


UMfan77
09-30-2009, 09:09 AM
I was doing an online search on the murders of Joan, Michelle & Christe Rogers in 1989. I know this case has been solved and it has been profiled on several tv shows (besides UM) but I found the actual court files for this case. Below is the link. Starting on page 14, it goes into detail describing the events leading up to the murders.

http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/flsupct/84812/84812ini.pdf

TracyLynnS
09-30-2009, 09:26 AM
Those documents name one of Chandler's rape victims. I thought victims of sexual assault were able to have their identities protected from the public. Was that victim already publicly known?

I would hope that something that's so easy to find on the internet would at least have the victim's name redacted, so that even if the records are public, one would have to go to some trouble to obtain them.

UMfan77
09-30-2009, 09:51 AM
I would hope that something that's so easy to find on the internet would at least have the victim's name redacted, so that even if the records are public, one would have to go to some trouble to obtain them.

This file can be found online very easily, the only thing I typed in the search engine was "joan michelle christe rogers".

kadrmas15
09-30-2009, 09:55 AM
If you had typed in Oba Chandler you would have found the same thing. Well, the reason why her name was mentioned was because she allowed to have her name mentioned. Plus, since she testified at trial, she probably allowed her name to be public record.

TracyLynnS
09-30-2009, 10:03 AM
I only read about 10 of the 144 pages. That case has always bothered me because of the absolute horror of the whole thing. I usually don't read about it or watch the segment. And IMO, that inhuman Chandler creature needs to be dead already.

kadrmas15
09-30-2009, 10:41 AM
Well, I am no death penalty supporter, even for someone like Chandler. HOWEVER I do say that if a state insists on having such a punishment than Chandler is certainly the right man for it. Chandler does not have long left I do not think. He is out of appeals. He has actually been out of appeals for a couple of years now. I expect Chandler will get the needle sometime next year but we will see. I thought he was going to get it this year and he did not.

I will say Tracy, I have read this document that Umfan posted before. It is some sad, at times, sick reading. However it gives a great portrait into Oba Chandler and his personality. Ironically, this document is actually his defense attorneys brief to the court trying to get his conviction overturned. In actuality, it seems they were not really trying so hard to get his conviction overturned as they were his death sentence because even if they got that overturned it would start the appeals process all over again.

That woman he raped, he would have in my opinion killed her had her friend come along on the boat. In fact, I think that is the only reason he did not kill her, was because the friend could identify him as she would know her friend had not come back. The fact Oba was able to take control of the Rogers women, all three of them, on his own at the same time tells me he was an experienced killer. That was not the first time he killed someone and in my opinion was not the last time he killed someone as he was not arrested until 3 years after the murders. An inexperience killer would not abduct, individually rape and individually murder 3 women at the same time on the same night. So clearly he had done this before and was comfortable in what he was doing and knew what to expect.

If you have ever seen coverage of Oba Chandler's trial, it was pretty ridiculous. His favorite answers to questions were 'I do not know' or 'I do not remember'. Of course his lawyers, they did not want Oba to take the stand because all it did was make him look even worse than he already did. However Oba would go for nothing but innocence, and he took the stand and basically came off as cocky, arrogant, very combative with that little worm Doug Crow.

I think there were also some huge glaring examples of law enforcement failing in this case. As early as 1990 the St. Petersburg PD was receiving reports that Oba did this. Yet they were ignoring all the tips about Oba even though more than one person reported their suspicions of him.

Also, profiling failed in this case. While I do agree with the profile that Chandler had killed before and did kill after the Rogers women, obviously the profilers description of his physical appearance was way off. In fact, I actually think Chandler's physical appearance was why a lot of women were not threatened by him. Basically, if you did not know what he had done before, he looked like an unremarkable, fat guy. To me, he basically looked like a fat slob but if I saw the guy in a store or something like that, no red flags would get raised. I really would not think anything about him one way or another.

In the UM segment, it is interesting to note that a white boat with dark blue racing stripes was seen in the hotel parking lot. That was the same style boat Chandler owned. They also reported it was seen being towed by a dark blue or black blazer or bronco. However Chandler at that time did drive a black jeep cherokee which if you did not know your cars, would seem like just another SUV.

TracyLynnS
09-30-2009, 10:53 AM
Oh yeah, I remember seeing footage of Chandler testifying. His lawyers probably wished that they could gag his yappy face.

IMO, he has that typical psychopathic ego. It's kind of surprising that he didn't act as his own attorney. Those types always think that they're smarter than the rest of us.