California

Man Charged With Murder in Killing of Former Reality Show Contestant

Jackie Jerome Rogers, a 34-year-old nursing student, was booked on suspicion of murder and is being held on more than $2 million bail

A Lennox man was charged Thursday with murdering a registered nurse and former reality show contestant, whose body was found buried in a shallow grave in his back yard.

Jackie Jerome Rogers, 34, was scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon at the Inglewood, Calif., courthouse in connection with the hammer beating death of Lisa Marie Naegle, who was contestant on the E! Entertainment Television series "Bridalplasty" in 2010.

Prosecutors asked that bail be set at $2.02 million for Rogers, who could face up to 26 years to life in state prison if convicted of Naegle's killing. The 36-year-old San Pedro woman went missing after leaving a party early Sunday morning at Alpine Village, a German restaurant in Torrance, and a missing persons report was filed Monday.

Naegle's body was found Tuesday, and Rogers, a nursing student who accompanied Naegle to the party but initially claimed he left without her, was later arrested on suspicion of murder, said Los Angeles police Detective Meghan Aguilar. Police and coroner's officials searched Rogers' home in the 5000 block of West 106th Street and recovered Naegle's body some time after 4 p.m. Tuesday, according to the LAPD.

Rogers told investigators where to find the body, police said. According to Naegle's husband, Derek Harryman, his wife called him around 2:45 a.m. Sunday and said she was leaving the party but stopping to get something to eat on the way. She never came home.

She also failed to show up for nursing classes she teaches at West Los Angeles College. Naegle's relatives said she went to the party with one of her nursing students, but he repeatedly told the family he did not leave the party with her.

One of Naegle's relatives suggested that Naegle spurned Rogers' romantic advances, and he killed her with a blunt object.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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