Ex-lover is found guilty of murdering Bridalplasty contestant he bludgeoned to death by hitting her over the head with a hammer EIGHT times
- Jackie Jerome Rogers, 35, has been found guilty of murdering reality show contestant Lisa Marie Naegle, 36, by a Los Angeles jury on Monday
- Rogers was the nursing student and lover of the married former TV star
- On December 18, 2016 he killed her with eight blows to the head with a hammer
- Then he buried her naked body in a shallow grave in his backyard
- Her body was discovered two days later on December 20, 2016
- Rogers could face life in prison. His sentencing is set for late October
The ex-lover of the Bridalplasty contestant who was bludgeoned to death in 2016 has been found guilty of first-degree murder after he confessed to the killing.
Lisa Marie Naegle, 36, was a married registered nurse who rose to fame on the E! Reality show Bridalplasty in 2010.
Her skull was smashed with a hammer and her naked body buried in a shallow grave in the backyard of her 35-year-old lover and nursing student Jackie Jerome Rogers on December 18, 2016.
A jury of 12 convicted Rogers following a two-week trial and two years after her horrific death on Monday, according to the L.A. County District Attorney's Office.
Jackie Jerome Rogers, 35, (left) has been found guilty of murdering reality show contestant Lisa Marie Naegle by a jury on Monday in Los Angeles
Lisa Marie Naegle, 36, was a married registered nurse who rose to fame on the E! Reality show Bridalplasty in 2010. She was murdered by her student lover on December 18, 2016
He could face life in prison for his crime and his sentencing is set for the end of October, according to TMZ.
In a bombshell confession to authorities in December 2016, Rogers admitted to killing her after she told him she wanted to end their romance to patch things up with her husband.
Defense attorney Jeremy Lessem said that Rogers fell in love with Naegle, from San Pedro, who was his nursing teacher. He helped out in her classroom and the two would go out for lunch.
He said his client finally 'broke' after months of being 'toyed' with by Naegle, according to NBC4.
Naegle flirted with him and when Rogers passed his nursing certification she took him and friends to Las Vegas in June 2016 where they slept together.
'For the first time in his life ... there was somebody who really cared about him,' Lessem said.
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A jury of 12 convicted Rogers following a two-week trial on Monday, according to the L.A. County District Attorney's Office. Rogers pictured above in court in December 2016
His attorney said he snapped after Naegle 'toyed' and flirted with him for months but never left her husband. The night of her murder she allegedly told Rogers she wanted to end their relationship to patch things up with her husband
Rogers and Naegle were seen leaving a party together on surveillance footage in the early morning hours of December 18, 2016 in Torrance, California, before she went missing
The death certificate (above) issued by the Los Angeles County Coroner did not specify cause of death. The circled word 'DEFERRED' indicated that that authorities were not sure
She also told Rogers she and her husband weren't in love. But she didn't leave him and went in for in vitro fertilization appointments a week before she was murdered.
Around her friends she reportedly ridiculed Rogers - who has developmental disabilities - and called him 'Lennie' from 'Of Mice and Men'.
His attorney said Rogers suffered after 'the repeated mental abuse over a six-month period'.
Rogers finally snapped on the night of December 18, 2016 at a party at Alpine Village in Torrance, California.
At first Rogers told police he dropped Naegle off at a bar past midnight following the party. But surveillance footage showed her getting into his SUV around 2am.
Rogers said in the car she started to hit him and he started to cry and then attacked her.
Rogers attorney said that Naegle flirted with him, helped him in class, and slept with him but didn't want to leave her husband, torturing the student until he finally 'snapped'
'Just snapped. Something broke...it all finally came crashing down,' Lessem said.
She and Rogers were last seen in the parking lot of a Jack in the Box restaurant and she had allegedly broken up with him in the car to return to her husband.
At 2.45am she texted her husband Derek Harryman to say she was grabbing food then coming home.
Rogers killed her with eight blows to the head with the hammer, crushing her skull into pieces.
She was unheard of following that text and she found two days later naked and face down in Roger's yard, TMZ reported.
'Miss Naegle did not deserve to die. This is a tragedy' Lessem said in court, adding the killing was 'the act of a very damaged, very hurt person with intellectual deficits who broke down and did something he never should have done.'
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