Bio

Earl Carl Heiselbetz Jr. was born on April 1, 1951, and spent much of his adult life residing in rural Sabine County, Texas, near the town of Pineland. He was a large man, standing 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighing over 250 pounds. In 1975, Heiselbetz survived a severe traffic collision that left him with significant head injuries, an event his defense would later try to link to behavioral changes.

Within his local area, Heiselbetz developed a reputation among neighbors for displaying erratic behavior and ignoring boundary lines. Prior to a young family, Bob and Rena Rogers, along with their daughter, moving into a secluded neighboring property located just two-tenths of a mile from his home, Heiselbetz had illegally breached their locked residence. He openly bragged to others that he could bypass their locks and enter their home whenever he pleased, establishing a pattern of anti-social behavior before ever interacting directly with the victims.

Murder Story

On May 30, 1991, Rena Rogers and her two-year-old daughter Jacy were seen at a grocery store at about 9:30 a.m. Rena had plans to meet her sister-in-law, Natalie Whitton, at 11:30 a.m. so they could travel to Nacogdoches. Rena planned to bring Jacy with her. Rena never arrived at the meeting place. When her husband returned home, he found that Rena’s car was still parked in the driveway. Her car keys, purse, and a jar of coins were missing from the house, but there were no clear signs of a struggle inside the home.

Heiselbetz was questioned by the Sabine County Sheriff on the day Rena and Jacy disappeared. His answers about his whereabouts made him a possible suspect. Nearly one month later, on June 27, 1991, skeletal remains of an adult female and a young child were found in and around a barn in Tyler County, Texas. The remains were identified through dental and medical records as Rena Rogers and Jacy Rogers.

After the bodies were found, Heiselbetz was questioned again. During an interview at a relative’s home and in the presence of his wife, he confessed to killing Rena and Jacy. He later signed a written confession stating that he killed them at about 11:00 a.m. on May 30, 1991. In his confession, Heiselbetz said he put both bodies into Rena’s car and drove them several miles away to the barn where they were later found. He then returned Rena’s car to the driveway at her home. He also said he went back into the Rogers home and took frozen hamburger meat and canned tomato sauce.

When asked how he killed Rena and Jacy, Heiselbetz said he did not know and claimed that he had blacked out. He said he remembered marks on the victims’ necks. Investigators later asked if he had strangled them, but he said he did not think so. A few days after his confession, Heiselbetz led police along the route he said he had taken after the killings. He showed them where he had thrown Rena’s purse into a pond. Police recovered the purse, which contained Rena’s identification and appeared to have been partly burned.

The prosecution rejected Heiselbetz’s explanation that Rena had provoked the confrontation. Heiselbetz claimed that Rena came to his gate with Jacy, accused him of shooting her dogs, shot him in the leg, and later threw something at him. Evidence did not support that account. Specialists found no proof that holes in his jeans were made by bullets, and a doctor said the injury on his leg did not appear to be a recent gunshot wound. Rena was also described as under five feet tall and about 90 pounds, while Heiselbetz was much larger and stronger.

The State’s theory was that Heiselbetz entered the Rogers home on the morning of May 30, 1991, possibly to make more sweepstakes calls. Prosecutors argued that Rena returned from the grocery store and surprised him inside the house. Heiselbetz then killed Rena and killed Jacy, placed their bodies in Rena’s car, drove them to the barn, returned the car, and removed items from the home to conceal what had happened.

On July 16, 1991, Heiselbetz was indicted in Sabine County, Texas, for capital murder involving two victims. He pleaded not guilty. On November 18, 1991, a jury convicted Earl Carl Heiselbetz Jr. of capital murder. On November 20, 1991, after a separate punishment hearing, the jury answered the special issues in a way that required a death sentence, and the trial court sentenced him to death.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed his conviction and death sentence on June 28, 1995. His later state and federal appeals were denied.

Earl Carl Heiselbetz Jr. was executed by lethal injection in Texas on January 12, 2000. He was 48 years old. His execution was the 200th carried out in Texas after the state resumed executions in 1982.