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Prosecution Rests
In N.J.
Serial Murders Trial
by
365Gay.com from the Web, November 10, 2005
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Toms River, NJ -- The
prosecution rested its case Wednesday in the trial of a male nurse charged with
killing, dismembering and then dumping the bodies of two gay men.
Richard W. Rogers is charged with the killings of Thomas Mulcahy and Anthony E.
Marrero.
The dismembered body of Mulcahy, 57, found in 1992. Police say that Rogers
killed the Sudbury, Mass. man, dismembered his body, placed pieces in garbage
bags and dumped them along Route 72 and at a Garden State Parkway rest area.
The body parts of Marrero, a 44, New York man, were found May 10, 1993, on a
road in Manchester Township.
Authorities say Rogers also is linked to killings of gay men in two other
states.
The final prosecution witness Wednesday was a New Jersey State Police lieutenant
who testified that Roger's days off from his job at Mount Sinai Hospital in
Manhattan coincided with the when four of the victims were last seen alive.
Rogers has not been charged in the murders of the other men whose remains were
found in Florida, Pennsylvania and upstate New York between 1982 and 1993.
Earlier in the trial the jury heard that Rogers was a regular customer at a gay
Manhattan piano bar that also was frequented by Marrero and Mulchay.
Richard "Rick" Unterberg, piano player at the Townhouse bar, testified that both
men had been seen at the bar with Rogers the nights they disappeared.
A fingerprint expert with the New Jersey State Police has testified that 16
prints found on the plastic garbage bags that contained the body parts of the
two victims belong to Rogers.
Rogers attorney, David Ruhnke, says that police arrested the wrong man and
suggested that his client's fingerprints prove he did nothing more than carry
bags in which mutilated body parts were found. Ruhnke said that other
fingerprints were found on the bags as well.
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