KCSO sheriff, CSUB police chief testify in retrial of ex-KCSO deputy convicted of murdering 2 women
Feb. 6—A retrial of a former Kern County Sheriff's deputy convicted of killing two prostitutes has drawn witness testimony from many disparate people — former sex workers, deputy district attorneys reading transcripts of KCSO officials who've died and a fingerprint expert from a state department. Entering the approximately 11th day of trial on Monday, prosecutors questioned the heads of two Bakersfield law enforcement agencies.
Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood testified Monday he and another deputy talked about defendant David Keith Rogers' actions. Rogers — who once worked in local jails — was convicted of murdering Janine Marie Benintende, 20, in 1986 and pregnant Tracie Clark, 15, in 1987. Jurors will not consider if Rogers' convictions are illegitimate, but if he should be sentenced to death or spend his life in prison without parole.
The California Supreme Court overturned Rogers' death penalty sentence after a key witness in his original trial recanted her testimony about him attacking her. A Kern County Superior Court judge had used this information when sentencing Rogers to death.
Youngblood supervised in the Boron substation Deputy Michael Duffy, who has testified before in this trial. Duffy and Youngblood discussed how Rogers showed nude pictures of women to Duffy on two occasions while they were working, the sheriff testified under direct examination by Kern County District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer, who's prosecuting the case with another top prosecutor, Chief Deputy District Attorney Eric Smith.
Rogers once showed Duffy a picture of nude women, and also an entire binder filled with 20 to 30 pictures of them, Youngblood testified. The sheriff recalled in his brief testimony Duffy saying some of the pictures weren't necessarily pornographic and some were close-ups of women's pubic areas.
Chief assistant public defender Tanya Richard — No. 2 in the Kern County Public Defender's Office — asked Youngblood if Duffy indicated pictures of women's pubic areas showed them nude. Youngblood testified he didn't write down in a report if those women were nude, and doesn't remember the total content of that conversation.
Rogers' behavior caused him concern, Youngblood said, because that "didn't appear to be normal" for deputies to be showing pictures of naked women at work. Youngblood wrote a memo to a supervisor about this information.
Youngblood testified he wasn't involved in any investigation into Rogers.
Cal State Bakersfield Police Chief Martin Williamson testified about his time as a KCSO homicide detective in the late 1980s and investigating Clark's death. He helped to collect evidence, and testified he collected spent bullet casings, documented tire tracks, analyzed blood and found a condom.
A body also floated at the Arvin-Edison canal and was taken to the coroner's office. The Jane Doe — later identified as Clark — had three bullets removed from her, Williamson testified.
Around February 1987, Williamson testified, he was chatting with other deputies about this case because it appeared Clark's murder had similar circumstances to one investigated a year before, Benintende's murder.
Former KCSO Sheriff Mack Wimbish also testified previously in this trial.
Testimony is scheduled to continue Tuesday morning.
You can reach Ishani Desai at 661-395-7417. You can also follow her at @_ishanidesai on Twitter.
