Violent, serial rapist sentenced to lengthy prison term

A 23-YEAR-OLD serial rapist, who strangled strangers he grabbed off the street and lured teens into homes, was sentenced yesterday to 55 to 178 years in state prison.

Eric Rogers, a tall man dressed in a long-sleeved white thermal shirt and blue prison pants, showed no remorse.

When asked by Assistant District Attorney Branwen McNabb if he understood that he was deemed a sexually violent predator and as such would be required to register with state police if he ever got out of prison, Rogers calmly said: "I don't consent."

Asked by his public defender, John Konchak, if he understood his appellate rights, Rogers told him: "There's something I don't understand. Does this Constitution count for me?"

And during his right to speak before Common Pleas Judge Donna Woelpper, Rogers, reading from a handwritten statement on his yellow legal pad, asked the judge to "specify on the record what statute or statutes authorizes you" to impose a sentence.

Rogers was convicted by Woelpper after a February bench trial of raping four women, including a 17-year-old, and in a fifth case, of corrupting a 16-year-old girl.

The women he raped were brutally and inhumanely assaulted and suffered "near-death experiences," McNabb told Woelpper.

Rogers "forced himself [on them sexually] and if they struggled, he would beat them . . . and slammed [two of the women's] heads into bricks," she said.

"One woman felt God himself had abandoned her."

Four of the five victims were in court, and at least one was crying when McNabb described the horrors they underwent. The fifth victim was not in court, but her mom and sister were present.

McNabb and co-prosecutor Brandon Jaycox read victim-impact statements from the victims and from the mother who was in court. They described similar psychological and emotional scars, in which the victims can no longer trust people, have withdrawn into themselves, suffer depression and have less ambition in life.

"The rape and the image of Eric Rogers still haunts her to this day," McNabb said of one victim.

Rogers raped three women who were strangers he met on the streets of West Philly. During the attacks, he strangled them.

On May 18, 2011, he raped a 40-year-old woman on 52nd Street near Race. A month later, June 14, he raped a 37-year-old on Cobbs Creek Parkway near Ellsworth Street. Then, about 9:30 a.m. Sept. 15, 2011, he raped a 38-year-old woman on Creighton Street near Girard Avenue.

The next year, on Feb. 22, 2012, he met the 16-year-old at a library near 52nd and Spruce streets in West Philly, then lured her to a rooming house where he was staying on Thompson Street near 51st in West Philly. The judge, in this case, acquitted Rogers of rape and related offenses, but convicted him of corruption of a minor.

Then, on March 8, 2012, he met the 17-year-old on a bus and lured her to his relative's home on Palisades Drive in East Falls, where he was then staying, and raped her. He also smothered her with a pillow, McNabb said.

This victim immediately reported the rape to police. Afterward, a police Special Victims Unit detective contacted Rogers. Rogers then called this girl and pretended to be the detective to try to find out how much information she divulged to police about the brutal assault, McNabb said. The teen, though, recognized Rogers' voice and told the detective.

While testifying at his trial, Rogers claimed "these women wanted him," McNabb said, emphasizing he has not shown "an ounce of remorse."

McNabb asked Woelpper to sentence Rogers to 142 1/2 to 285 years in prison, close to the maximum sentence allowable.

Konchak told the judge that Rogers "has always maintained his innocence." He said Rogers, born to a drug-addicted mother who neglected him, was less than a year old when he was placed in the custody of the city Department of Human Services.

"He was in different foster-care and placement facilities," Konchak said. The attorney asked the judge to sentence Rogers to a prison term that would one day give him the chance to be paroled if he were to change his behavior.

After the sentencing, the victims, who did not know one another, hugged while crying.

"Great day, great day," one woman said, wiping away tears.

Besides his convictions on charges of rape and corruption of minors, Rogers had also been convicted of charges of aggravated assault, sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, robbery, impersonating a public servant and related offenses.