Florida set to execute suspected serial killer once eyed for possible
link to the OJ Simpson case
[May 15, 2025]
By CURT ANDERSON
STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A suspected serial killer once scrutinized for a
possible link to the O.J. Simpson case that riveted the nation in the
mid-1990s is scheduled to be executed Thursday in Florida for the murder
of a woman in a Tampa motel room.
Glen Rogers, 62, is set to receive a lethal injection at Florida State
Prison near Starke, barring a last-day reprieve. He was convicted in
Florida of the 1995 murder of Tina Marie Cribbs, a 34-year-old mother of
two he had met at a bar.
The U.S. Supreme Court denied Rogers' final appeals on Wednesday without
comment.
Rogers would be the fifth inmate put to death in Florida this year. As
of May 1, 15 people have been executed this year in the U.S. in eight
states, according to the Death Penalty Information Center’s website.
That compares with 25 people in all of 2024, the center reported.
He also drew a separate death sentence in California for the 1995
strangulation killing of Sandra Gallagher, a mother of three whom he had
met at a bar in Van Nuys in that state. That killing came weeks before
the Cribbs murder. Rogers was stopped after a highway chase in Kentucky
while driving Cribbs’ car soon after her death.
Rogers was named as a suspect but never convicted in several other
slayings around the country, once telling police he had killed about 70
people. He later recanted that statement, but had been the subject of
documentaries including one from 2012 called “My Brother the Serial
Killer” that featured his brother Clay and a criminal profiler who had
corresponded extensively with Rogers.
The documentary raised questions about whether Rogers could have been
responsible for the 1994 stabbing deaths of Simpson's ex-wife Nicole
Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.
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During a 1995 murder trial that drew intense media attention, the
former football star and celebrity Simpson was acquitted of all
charges. Los Angeles police and prosecutors subsequently said after
the documentary's release that they didn't think Rogers had any
involvement in the Simpson and Goldman killings.
“We know who killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. We have no
reason to believe that Mr. Rogers was involved," the Los Angeles
Police Department said in a statement at the time.
Simpson had always professed innocence but was later found liable
for the deaths in a separate civil case, and then served nine years
in prison on unrelated charges. The 76-year-old Simpson died in
April 2024 after battling cancer.
Rogers, originally from Hamilton, Ohio, has also been labeled the
“Casanova Killer” or “Cross Country Killer" in various media
reports. Some of his alleged and proven female victims had similar
characteristics: ages in their 30s, a petite frame and red hair.
Rogers' lawyers have filed several appeals with state and federal
courts, none successful. One argument was that newly enacted state
legislation authorizing the death penalty for trafficking in young
children makes clear the abuse he suffered as a child is now taken
seriously and should result in a life prison sentence for Rogers.
That argument was rejected.
Florida uses a three-drug cocktail for its lethal injection: a
sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to
the Corrections Department.
Anthony Wainwright is the next Florida inmate scheduled for
execution — on June 10 — under a death warrant signed by Republican
Gov. Ron DeSantis. Wainwright, 54, was convicted of kidnapping a
woman from a supermarket parking lot in Lake City in 1994 and raping
and killing her.
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