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Jason Wenger's mother and stepfather outside the courtroom after their son's killer was sentenced on Nov. 13.
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Christopher Erin Rogers Jr., the man known as the "machete murderer," will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Rogers Jr. was sentenced to 309 years for his deadly December 2007 Anchorage shooting rampage. The deadly spree followed Rogers Jr. killing his father and severely hurting his father's fiancé and their dog with a machete in Palmer.

When it was Rogers Jr.'s turn to speak he told Anchorage Superior Court Judge Eric Aarseth he was sorry for his Anchorage crime spree.

"Sometimes good people do bad things, and I did a really, really ****** thing," Rogers Jr. said. "I wish I could take it back. And it could be different but it can't."

Rogers' Jr.'s Public Defender Zachary Renfro tried to argue voices in his client's head drove him to murder.

"The fact that these criminal acts were committed as a result of some psychiatric episode. As opposed to just a general criminal intent," Renfro said.

Anchorage District Attorney Adrienne Bachman, however, said the pure evil Rogers Jr. showed on that December 2007 night still lives on, and must be locked up forever.

"This sentence has to guarantee that this evil never again walks the streets of Anchorage, or the back roads of Palmer, or visits its' evil on another Alaskan community," Bachman said.

Judge Aarseth said Rogers Jr.'s claims of insanity were not believable, and his actions showed Rogers apology was not sincere.

"He wants attention," Aarseth said. "Even in a trail where someone

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has been killed, some people but for the grace of God would have been killed. And he wants attention by wearing a kleenex in his pocket."

This 309 year sentence includes the murder and two attempted murder charges.

To the victims in this case, Rogers Jr.'s sentence does not bring back their loved ones. For the family of Jason Wenger, the Anchorage grad student murdered as he warmed his car that December 2007 morning, they say the sentence does help their healing process.

"Really will help heal those wounds a little more," Jason's mom Deborah Staub says.

"I think closure is kind of an overused word," Jason's step dad Mason Staub adds. "Just a matter of being able to move on. I think this helps." So their son would never be forgotten they brought a picture of him dancing with his niece, and another of all the sisters he left behind.

"It's so easy because our family is so far removed from Anchorage to forget that all of these people are also victims," Deborah Staub says.

Wenger was Rogers Jr.'s first Anchorage victim. On the run from his Valley crimes he needed a car. He stole it after he shot his third victim Tomas Deak.

"From that scene of Mr. Rogers standing over him to shoot that was an execution." Aarseth said. "It was shots to kill. And there's no question about it. When I say the shooting was intentional I mean the intent to kill the person was there without question."

Rogers Jr.'s second victim Elizabeth Rumsey, shot while walking near the coastal trail, did not offer a statement.

Rogers Jr. is scheduled to be sentenced for his Valley crimes in January.

To contact the Newsroom, call 907-274-1111.

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