A woman who lived on the Tennessee River said that on the day that Donald Rogers was murdered, she heard a man near the dock in front of her home say, "I'm not going to jail for this."
Brenda Wattenberger, who was standing on her deck at the time, said this scared her. She testified in court on Thursday, "That's when I called 911."
Chance Loftis is currently on trial for the murder of the 46-year-old Rogers. According to the testimony of co-defendant Travis Jenkins, he, Loftis and Rogers had been drinking in Rogers' boat for several hours on April 24, 2012.
Jenkins testified that Loftis became angry when Rogers got them lost. At this point, he said Rogers pulled out a knife. Jenkins said that Loftis began beating Rogers until the knife fell into the water.
He said even after that, Loftis continued his attack. Eventually, he said Loftis strangled Rogers. He also said Loftis killed Rogers' dog, a small Yorkshire terrier named Braxton.
Ms. Wattenberger said, "I thought somebody had broken down and was going to come over here and want some help...I still wasn't concerned, but then I heard more talking and at that time I realized they were right at my dock."
Defense attorney Mary Sullivan Moore noted that while Rogers died from a neck injury, the injury also could have been sustained by falling into the side of the boat while he was intoxicated. When pictures of the body showed that Rogers' belt was unbuckled and his underwear was showing when the body was discovered, attorney Moore suggested he could have fallen while urinating over the side of the boat.
A patrol deputy called out to the area that night because of reports of a suspicious person testifying that he stopped a man who was later identified as Loftis walking down the road.
The deputy said Loftis had blood on his pants and that his hands were bleeding. He said Loftis told him that his girlfriend had kicked him out of the car and that he had wandered through the woods, lost for the past three hours. He said Loftis told him he cut his hands in the brush.
Marcus Fritz, chief of Dallas Bay Fire and Rescue, said he and his team were the first to find the body. The body was hanging over the side of the boat.
Chief Fritz said he searched for a pulse, but that rigor mortis had already set in and that the man was obviously deceased.
He said, "The body was stiff...I knew there was no saving his life."
The trial is scheduled to continue Friday and go into next week.