Jeffrey Rogers pleads guilty to murdering Dublin woman, then dumping her body in Tennessee lake.
A man set to go on trial next week for the 2020 murder of a Dublin woman pleaded guilty on Monday and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Sixty-two-year-old Jeffrey Kenneth Rogers was facing five to 99 years if convicted of killing Traci Jones, who was 41 at the time of her death, and dumping her body in Tennessee.
“There was a confession in this case, so I think this was the best thing for my client,” Rogers’ attorney David Stokes told Beneath the Surface News.
According to the plea agreement, Rogers will not become eligible for parole until he is 75.
“We grieve for the Jones family for their loss of Traci,” District Attorney Alan Nash said following the plea agreement. “This sentence provides a measure of temporal justice for Traci and her family, while minimizing the presentation of mitigating and unpleasant evidence regarding the nature of the crime and the history of the relationships leading up to the crime.”
The circumstances surrounding the case read like a made-for-TV movie; one that included pornography, threats and revenge.
Jones’ body was found inside a black 50-gallon Craftsman tote floating in a Kentucky lake on June 22, 2020.
Rogers, who lived in Granbury at the time, told investigators that he strangled Jones after spending the night with her at Holiday Inn in Stephenville.
Jones and Rogers appeared to have a complicated relationship that was outlined in the arrest complaint.
According to the complaint, Jones, Jeffrey Rogers and his wife Tammy, a principal at Arlington ISD at the time, engaged in the production of pornography with Circle V Entertainment.
When the relationship soured, Jones reportedly told an attorney that she was afraid the couple would harm her after she threatened to expose the pornography and production company.
Two months later, Jones was dead.
STRANGE TWISTS
After Jones’ body was discovered, investigators interviewed Tammy Rogers who said her husband had continued to have sex with Jones and give her money even after she threatened to ruin Tammy Rogers’ career.
“Tammy was upset that Jeffrey Rogers would still have sex with Jones, constantly paying her more and more money,” the complaint states.
Tammy Rogers told investigators that on June 16 Jeffrey Rogers traveled to Dublin to meet Jones.
She said Jeffrey Rogers didn’t respond to three texts messages she sent him that night and didn’t return home until early the next morning.
By then, investigators believe Jeffrey Rogers had already killed Jones after leaving the Holiday Inn.
After Jeffrey Rogers returned home on June 17, the couple loaded a pickup and headed to Kentucky to visit family with Jones’ body in the back.
Surveillance video in Burleson, Texas captured the pickup traveling with a large black container in the back – the same container that Jones’ body was later discovered in.
The next day Jeffrey Rogers rented a pontoon boat in Tennessee and additional surveillance footage taken at a marina appeared to show him loading the container onto the boat, according to the complaint.
Investigators believe that’s when Jeffrey Rogers disposed of Jones’ body.
“The recovery of the body was in the state of Kentucky, but it is believed the body was dumped in the state of Tennessee and floated to Kentucky,” the arrest complaint states.
Rogers told investigators that he was the only one responsible for Jones’ death.
“I own it, and Tammy had nothing to do with it,” Rogers told investigators.
