Nov 2, 2019 3 min read

A Washington County jury convicted a 31-year-old city man of most charges stemming from 11 firearms he wasn’t allowed to have, plus heroin, police said they found in his possession a year ago.

Jurors deliberated about five hours Friday morning and during the previous afternoon at the end of Lance A. Rogers’ trial before Common Pleas Judge Valarie Costanzo, who set sentencing for Jan. 31. Jurors found Rogers guilty on charges he possessed 10 separate firearms despite having been barred from doing so by a previous conviction, along with charges of drug possession, possession with intent to distribute and possessing drug paraphernalia.

Rogers has been in Washington County jail since his bail was revoked almost a year ago.

Jurors found him not guilty of possessing an 11th firearm, a 9-mm Sig Sauer semi-automatic handgun, that was found in his girlfriend’s purse in the couple’s bedroom.

“I appreciate (the jurors) taking their time and really analyzing the evidence,” said Pete Marcoline, Rogers’ attorney.

Marcoline said he expects to appeal the case and intended to discuss those plans with his client.

Assistant District Attorney Rachel Wheeler said Rogers is originally from Chicago and shared a house with his girlfriend, Ashley Ruffin, on Prospect Street.

Detective Ryan McWreath, a member of the sheriff’s office who is assigned to Washington County Drug Task Force, filed charged Oct. 26, 2018, the same day police raided the house. McWreath wrote investigators found 10 guns in different parts of the house and one more in a Honda Element owned by Ruffin. Rogers was sleeping in bed when they arrived.

They also found a mixture of several drugs, including heroin and fentanyl, near the bedroom. Police said Rogers had allegedly admitted the drugs and at least one gun were his.

Marcoline said almost all of the guns were registered not to Rogers, but to Ruffin. One that wasn’t, a .357-caliber Colt Frontier revolver, had been manufactured prior to registration requirements, he added.

But evidence shown during the trial – for which jurors were picked Monday and which opened Tuesday – included videos from Rogers’ cellphone that showed him holding some of the weapons.

Wheeler said some footage “actually showed him operating” a firearm when he fired it at a range.

“It’s certainly what we hoped for,” Wheeler said of the verdict. “I’m very pleased that they considered the evidence and made the right decision.”

She added that investigators had done “fantastic work” on the case.

McWreath wrote in the request for a search warrant, which Judge Gary Gilman granted two days before it was executed, that detectives had met with two confidential informants as part of their investigation.

The first told them they already purchased heroin from someone they knew as “Buck,” which police said is Rogers’ nickname, a number of times. That person went on to make three “controlled buys” under surveillance by police. A second informant backed up the first’s story, telling police “Buck” was selling heroin and carried a gun.

As part of an omnibus motion the defense filed before the trial, Marcoline argued the allegations by informants did not establish an adequate basis for the search that police undertook. He contended the information police had cited was vague and didn’t actually show that Rogers sold heroin to the informants.

He asked the evidence from that search and Rogers’ two cellphones, which police also examined, should be suppressed. Costanzo denied the motion.