Former skateboard star ‘Gator’, convicted of rape and murder in 1991, denied parole

The once-famous professional skateboarder lost his bid for parole on Thursday, 33 years after he raped and murdered a 22-year-old model in her Carlsbad apartment and buried her in a shallow desert grave.

The two-person parole hearing panel’s decision that Mark Anthony “Gator” Rogowski is not eligible for release differs from findings made in two previous hearings in which he was found eligible for release (in 2019 and 2022). But whenever it is deemed appropriate, the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office applied to the governorship. And every time Governor Gavin Newsom blocks his release.

On Thursday, Parole Board Commissioner Julie Garland cited several reasons for denying parole to 58-year-old Rogowski; among these was his lack of self-awareness as to what led him to attack Jessica Bergsten for no reason. He said Thursday that his answers to questions about his insight were inconsistent with statements he made at the hearing and at previous parole hearings.

“We’re trying to get some clarity from you, and it’s getting murkier and murkier,” Garland said. He later added: “You were evasive in many respects.”

Garland agreed with Deputy District Attorney John Cross’s assessment that Rogowski suggested a lot of “program talk” from self-improvement programs he received in prison, mentioning BDSM fantasies and sexual sadism, but offered no real insight into what it was. happened and why?

Rogowski’s attorney, Laura Sheppard, said her client has changed greatly, has a good understanding of his past and poses a low risk to public safety. The prison psychological report found him to be low risk.

Bergsten was best friends with Rogowski’s ex-girlfriend in Arizona, and Rogowski was still upset about the breakup, according to testimony at Thursday’s Microsoft Teams hearing, transcripts from a previous hearing and old news reports.

Bergsten, who had recently moved to Pacific Beach, went to Rogowski’s house to watch a movie in March 1991. They drank and talked. As Bergsten prepared to drive home, Rogowski unlocked the steering wheel and, without warning, shot him in the head from behind.

Rogowski shouted Old Testament Bible verses at her before handcuffing her, carrying her upstairs to the bedroom, cutting off her clothes and raping her. The difficult process took about three hours. He got into a fight when she stuffed him into his surfboard bag. He strangled her so the neighbors wouldn’t hear her scream.

Rogowski, then 24, took Bergsten’s body to Imperial County and buried her off Interstate 8. His body was found days later, but he was not identified until Rogowski came forward to confess several weeks later.

On Thursday, Rogowski apologized and said he wished he could go back and undo what he did. He said he was “completely broken” and “full of anger” at the time of the attack.

“If I die here, I don’t mind,” he said. “It feels like I did everything I could.”

Bergsten’s brother asked hearing officers not to release Rogowski. “When he killed my sister, he killed my family,” Jordan Bergsten said. He held up a photo of his sister, then one of her headstones. Bergsten then held up two small urns (his parents’ ashes).

“He says it’s okay to die in prison. I’m okay with that too. I think most of America accepts that,” Jordan Bergsten said.

Rogowski must wait three years for his next parole hearing.