Jimmy Ray Rodgers, 29, stands trial in Lee County, Florida for allegedly killing Dr. Teresa Sievers, 46. He faces charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and first-degree burglary while armed. If convicted, he faces a possible death sentence. You can watch the stream in the player above.
The story from authorities is that Sievers’ husband Mark Sievers, 51, orchestrated the murder, and recruited childhood friend Curtis Wayne Wright Jr., 51, to carry it out, authorities said. Rodgers, who was Wright’s former cellmate in a Missouri jail, also participated in the killing, authorities said. Teresa Sievers was found dead in her kitchen after she returned home from a New York vacation without her family. The back of her head had been bashed in with a hammer on June 28, 2015, authorities said. Lee County sheriff’s deputies said that the victim’s husband set it up so that the alarm system would be off when she had returned home, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime.
Today is day 5 of jury selection in the #SieversTrial. Jimmy Rodgers is the first to go on trial for the murder of Dr. Teresa Sievers. We’ll bring you gavel-to-gavel coverage once the jury is selected. pic.twitter.com/9ptxfeGDrJ
— Cathy Russon (@cathyrusson) October 7, 2019
Wright and Rodgers both denied being in Florida from June 27, 2015, to June 30, 2015, deputies said.
Wright flipped, however. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and is set to testify against his co-defendants. Rodgers will stand trial before Mark Sievers.
The victim and her husband had been having problems in their marriage, and there’d been talk of divorce, deputies said in the probable cause statement.
[Mugshot via Lee County Sheriff’s Office]
