Jury recommends two death sentences for man who robbed and killed two San Bernardino women – San Bernardino Sun

Jerome Anthony Rogers was convicted in April 2024 of murdering San Bernardino residents Wanda Lee Paulin, 86, in 2010 and Mary Beth Blaskey, 76, in 2012. (Photo by Rick Sforza, The Sun/SCNG)

A Supreme Court jury recommended Friday, May 10, that a registered sex offender receive two death sentences for murdering and robbing two women in San Bernardino more than a decade ago.

The jury’s verdict on Jerome Anthony Rogers, 68, came in a quiet courtroom after a two-month trial in San Bernardino in which he was convicted. Rogers had pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Judge J. David Mazurek can follow the jury’s recommendation or impose a life sentence without parole.

Rogers was a neighborhood handyman who was accused of killing Wanda Lee Paulin, 86, on North Mountain View Avenue on Dec. 12, 2010, and Mary Beth Blaskey, 76, on Nov. 14, 2012, at her home on Fremontia Drive .

Rogers was convicted April 23 of two counts of murder and one count of sexual assault. The jury considered the special circumstances that qualified Rogers for the death penalty: committing a robbery during a murder, being convicted of multiple murders, and using torture during a murder.

Rogers was charged in 2013 with the murder and sexual assault of Blaskey, a retired San Bernardino City Unified School District employee and secretary.

Her home had been ransacked and her 2001 Lexus was missing. Some other items believed to have been taken from her home were found at a home where Rogers was sleeping.

Rogers was linked to the crime through DNA evidence. While Rogers was in prison, DNA evidence also linked him to Paulin’s killing, a police spokesman said at the time, noting there were few witnesses. In January 2015, a second case was filed that included the previous charges related to the Blaskey murder.

Paulin was the bookkeeper at First Presbyterian Church in San Bernardino — which Blaskey attended — for 20 years. Paulin’s apartment was searched and rings were taken from her fingers.

Tipsters saw Rogers in December 2012 with items they thought were out of place for him, and police began investigating him, officials said at the time.