Man convicted of 2 murders gets 2 consecutive life sentences

A man convicted of two murders will serve two consecutive life sentences.

Eric Rogers rejected a plea deal this morning, maintaining his innocence.

DeKalb County prosecutors had agreed to reduce the sentence for Rogers, who was convicted of killing two teenagers, on one condition: He told them where he dumped one of the bodies.

On Thursday, Rogers told the judge that he did not kill the teens and did not know where Darnell Patterson's was located.

On Wednesday, a jury found Rogers guilty of killing 14-year-old Mark Birmingham in 1991 and Patterson in 1995.

Jurors found Rogers guilty of two counts of malice murder and two counts of felony murder, despite police never finding Patterson’s body, said Orzy Theus, spokesman for the DeKalb district attorney.

“We were able to get a conviction for two murders, even though they have one body,” Theus told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Prosecutors had planned to ask Superior Court Judge Clarence Seeliger to sentence Rogers to two life sentences to run consecutively. However, they agreed to hold off on the request for several hours to allow Rogers time to decide if he was ready to say where Patterson’s body was left.

“If Rogers tells us where the second body is, we will have his two life sentences to run concurrently,” Theus said.

Rogers' attorney, Letitia Delan, said he plans to appeal his conviction.

"I think he got a fair trial. Of course I had hoped it would have turned out differently, but the jurors made their decision based on the evidence presented with," she said.

The victims were friends of Rogers, Delan said. It's unclear what happened, but Delan said there was no evidence of a fight.