In re Rogowski CA4/1

INTRODUCTION

Mark A. Rogowski stands convicted of the 1991 brutal rape and murder of Jessica Bergsten. After her skeletal remains were found in a shallow grave in the desert east of San Diego, Rogowski confessed to police he had bludgeoned Bergsten’s head with a metal steering wheel lock called “the Club” and, while she bled, shackled her hands and feet, cut off her clothes with a pair of scissors and raped her for three hours. He then placed her in a surfboard bag, suffocated her with his hands until she died, and drove her lifeless body to the desert where he buried her. Shortly before these crimes, Rogowski had threatened to kill his former fiancée, Bergsten’s friend, and bury her in the desert. In exchange for the prosecutor’s dismissal of the special circumstance of murder in the commission of rape, which made him eligible for a life without parole or death sentence, Rogowski pled guilty to forcible rape and first- degree premeditated murder. Pursuant to the plea bargain, he was sentenced in 1992 to a total term of six years for the rape plus 25 years to life for the murder. This court affirmed the judgment on direct appeal. (People v. Anthony (Jan. 14, 1993, D016423)…