Friday, Sept. 9, 2005 | 11:12 a.m.
The 38-year-old woman charged in the suffocation of her 77-year-old mother previously had made references to harming her mother and had been suffering from a bipolar disorder, according to Metro Police and her husband.
Janet Rogers, who was arrested by Metro at a Burger King restaurant on Wednesday, also had been in and out of jails and prison for a variety of crimes in Las Vegas, California and Florida, her husband, Christopher Vener, and the authorities said.
She had recently spent more than two weeks under psychiatric evaluation at a jail in California and was released a little more than a month ago, Vener said.
In March 1998, she was also sentenced to 15 months in a federal prison and was fined $272,000 for her part in a $6 million telemarketing scam, according to the Nevada attorney general.
Rogers, who was using her married name Vener, was sentenced in federal court along with 15 others for a telemarketing scam that sought to collect charitable contributions from elderly residents for phony charities, according to the attorney general.
Her husband, however, attributed her current problems to her bipolar condition.
"She is a wonderful mother and a wonderful wife, but she has gotten progressively worse and worse," Vener said.
Rogers is facing one count of murder and one count of burglary in connection with the killing. She remains in the Clark County Detention Center.
Rogers and Vener have a 14-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter who are currently with family members in Florida, Vener said.
According to a police report, Rogers initially told Metro officers that she had not been at her mother, Alise Rogers', apartment on the night of the killing, but she later changed her story, saying she was there and observed that her mother "didn't appear to be well."
Rogers said she left the apartment after about 30 minutes without taking any action, the police report stated.
According to the police, however, Rogers had a laceration on her right pinky and scratches on her right forearm, back and left shoulder "that appear to be from fingernails," according to the report.
Rogers was arrested at a Burger King at Sahara Avenue and Valley View Boulevard at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, about a mile from her mother's apartment.
Police allege she broke into her mother's apartment in the 2600 block of Wyandotte Street, near Sahara Avenue and Rancho Drive about 3:45 a.m. and suffocated her, police said.
Her sister, who police said had been at the apartment when Rogers allegedly came in through the window, ran next door to call for help.
Vener, who had spoken to Rogers after she was arrested, said she had no recollection of the killing.
Rogers had been missing for about three days prior to the killing, Vener said, and on Tuesday night -- the night before the incident -- Vener had to pick her up at the Boardwalk hotel because she had created a disturbance at one of the retail shops.
Security officers at the casino had detained her briefly and called Vener to come pick her up, said Forrest Woodward, president of the Boardwalk.
"She was not that coherent," Woodward said. "She wasn't acting like a normal person would."
Later, Rogers drove off in a white Ford Escort from the Blair House Suite hotel and apartments on Desert Inn Road, where the couple has been renting a room, Vener said.
Vener called Alise Rogers' apartment when Rogers left the Blair House and reportedly spoke to a police officer who had arrived at the scene, according to a police report and Vener.
Vener reportedly was "expressing concern for the safety of his mother-in-law at the hands of Janet," according to the report. He also told police that Rogers was "making threatening remarks about taking care of her mother recently."
He said later, however, that Rogers was largely incoherent and that she "never said anything that would transpire."
According to the report, Rogers' half-sister, Angelika Stubing, who was staying at Alise Rogers' apartment, woke up around 3:45 a.m. after she heard glass breaking.
Stubing said she saw Rogers climbing into the apartment through a broken window and heard her mother calling out "Janet," according to the report.
Stubing said Rogers replied "tersely, saying 'shut up' to her mother while grabbing a nearby pillow," the report stated.
Stubing said she ran out of the apartment sought help from a nearby neighbor.
Vener, clearly upset by the killing and arrest of Rogers and broke down in tears, said he didn't believe his wife posed a threat to anyone.
"I would lie beside her in bed if she had two hammers in her hand," he said.
He attributed much of Rogers' present mental state to a new drug she was taking, Lamictal, that had been prescribed by a doctor in Florida two weeks ago.
"She doesn't know what she is doing," he said.
The two previously lived in Las Vegas for about 12 years and recently had resided in California and Florida, where she had been in and out of jails for minor disturbances, he said.
Vener, who also was sentenced to one month in prison and three years' supervised release for his role in the telemarketing scam, said prison also serious hurt his wife's mental state.
"The prison didn't do anything good for her," he said. "She didn't understand (why she was there)."
Vener said he would continue to stand by her.
"I'll never turn my back on Janet. If someone is in a wheelchair, you don't turn your back on them. This is the same thing," he said.
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