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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Monroe Street Shooting Case In Jury’s Hands Justin Rogers, 19, Accused Of Gunning Down Ex-Roommate

A Spokane man accused of murdering his former roommate last fall had no choice but to fire first or risk being killed, his attorney said Wednesday.

Justin Rogers, 19, is on trial for first-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder.

Prosecutors say he shot and killed 23-year-old Christopher Lashon Thomas and wounded 22-year-old Calvin White.

The shootings took place in the middle of the afternoon on Nov. 22, at the intersection of York Avenue and Monroe Street.

Jurors deliberated for four hours Wednesday without reaching a verdict.

During closing arguments earlier Wednesday, Deputy Prosecutor Mark Lindsey said Rogers “just plain gunned down an unarmed man.”

He said Rogers had numerous chances to get away from Thomas and White, who had confronted him the day of the shootings while Rogers was waiting for a bus.

“He didn’t choose to run away. He did not chose to fire a warning shot. This was not an accident,” Lindsey said.

But defense attorney Tracy Collins said Thomas threatened Rogers for several weeks before the shooting, prompting Rogers to get a gun for self-protection.

“Justin has no criminal record. And this was the first time in his life he ever carried a gun,” Collins told the jury.

Witnesses testified that a dispute had simmered for weeks between Rogers and Thomas, who once shared a house.

Saying he acted in self-defense, Rogers testified that Thomas threatened his mother and told friends he was “going to get Justin.”

When White and Thomas confronted him on the street corner, Rogers walked away, ending up in the middle of Monroe, the defendant testified.

He said he then drew a 9mm pistol from his coat and told the two men to halt.

Rogers told jurors the two men kept advancing and he thought he saw the handle of a gun sticking out of Thomas’ pants.

The defendant said he pointed the gun in their direction and fired. He insisted he had no intention of killing either man.

One bullet went through Thomas’ chest. The second hit him in the buttocks. He died moments later, slumped in a nearby doorway.

White ran after the first shots were fired. Rogers moved away from him at first, then came back around the corner and fired several times in his direction, White testified.

White was wounded in the lower abdomen.

Rogers told jurors he fired at the second man because he feared White may have picked up Thomas’ gun. White testified that neither he nor Thomas were armed.

Collins said two people inside nearby businesses reported seeing a second gun. But neither witness could identify who was holding it, he acknowledged.

“It doesn’t really matter that the other gun wasn’t found,” Collins told the jury. “What matters is the impression Justin Rogers got from what he’d been told up to then and what he believed he saw.”

Rogers, who has no criminal record, faces a 31-year prison term if convicted of first-degree murder.

, DataTimes