Bio

Roger Lee Gillett was born on June 9, 1974. By early 2004, he was in a relationship with Lisa Jo Chamberlin. The pair travelled from Kansas to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where Gillett’s cousin Vernon Hulett and Hulett’s girlfriend, Linda Heintzelman, allowed them to stay in their home for approximately one or two months.

The arrangement eventually deteriorated, and Gillett and Chamberlin were reportedly asked to move out. After the murders, the pair remained in the victims’ home for several days, removed bloodstained carpet and misled Hulett’s relatives about the couple’s whereabouts. They later transported the victims’ remains to Kansas in a freezer carried in Heintzelman’s pickup truck. Gillett was arrested on March 29, 2004, after his aunt reported suspected drug manufacturing and a stolen vehicle at his family’s rural farm.

While awaiting extradition, Gillett attempted to escape from custody in Kansas and pleaded guilty to attempted aggravated escape. That conviction later became central to the reversal of his death sentences because the original sentencing jury had been allowed to treat it as a previous violent felony without sufficient proof that the escape attempt involved violence or a threat of violence.

Murder Story

Vernon Hulett and Linda Heintzelman were last seen alive on March 19, 2004. On March 20, Hulett’s nephew visited their Hattiesburg home and found only Gillett and Chamberlin there. Gillett claimed that the couple had travelled to the Mississippi Gulf Coast with a friend. During later visits, the nephew noticed that carpet had been removed, but Gillett falsely explained that Hulett planned to replace it.

Evidence established that Hulett and Heintzelman were violently killed inside the residence on or about March 20. Hulett suffered fatal blunt-force trauma to the head. Heintzelman was beaten, cut, stabbed and asphyxiated. The bodies were dismembered, placed inside the couple’s freezer and secured with duct and electrical tape. Investigators later found Gillett’s fingerprints on the freezer and on both sides of the tape used to seal it.

Gillett and Chamberlin stayed in Hattiesburg for several days after the killings. They cleaned parts of the crime scene, disposed of property and continued interacting with Hulett’s relatives while claiming that the victims were still away. They eventually loaded the freezer into Heintzelman’s pickup truck and drove to Kansas. Gillett told friends that he had taken the truck, killed the owners and needed help disposing of the vehicle because their bodies were in the back.

On March 29, Gillett’s aunt contacted the Russell County Sheriff’s Department and reported that he had manufactured illegal drugs at his grandfather’s farm and stored a stolen pickup there. Officers arrested Gillett and Chamberlin at a local park. During searches of the farm, authorities found Heintzelman’s truck, suspected methamphetamine-manufacturing material and the taped freezer containing the victims’ remains. Chamberlin later directed investigators to a landfill where bags containing the victims’ wallets, clothing and other evidence had been discarded.

A four-day trial began on October 30, 2007. Gillett presented no evidence during the guilt phase. On November 2, the jury convicted him of two counts of capital murder committed during a robbery. The following day, the jury selected death for both murders, and the court entered its judgment on November 5.

The Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed the convictions and original sentences on July 1, 2010. During post-conviction proceedings, however, the court determined that Gillett’s due-process rights had been violated during sentencing. Jurors had considered his Kansas attempted-escape conviction as a previous violent felony, although the conviction itself did not establish that he used or threatened violence. The court vacated both death sentences on June 12, 2014, but left the capital-murder convictions unchanged.

On July 25, 2018, Gillett received two life sentences without the possibility of parole. Current MDOC records continue to list both capital-murder convictions, two life sentences and his location as MCCF, Dorm A.