‘I will always be with my brother’: Man sentenced to 38 years in prison for 2022 stabbing

Nearly a dozen people gathered in the Spokane County courthouse Thursday to watch a judge sentence 32-year-old Taylor Rogers to 38 years in prison for the 2022 murder of Jimmie Bailey.

“I will always be with my brother,” Pamela King, Bailey’s sister, told the court.

Bailey, 44, was stabbed with a roughly foot-long knife at Pacific Avenue and State Street in 2022 before a suspect fled the scene in an SUV.

He did not know Rogers.

Another of Bailey’s sisters, Connie Yarga, said that he had mental health issues due to being born prematurely, but was known for the lengths that he would go to help his friends and family.

She asked the judge, on behalf of their family, that Rogers be given the maximum sentence possible without possibility of parole.

Police determined Rogers was their suspect through witness descriptions of the attack, along with surveillance footage, according to court records.

Rogers fled to his mother’s house, where he told her that he had stabbed someone. She told police that he had blood on his hands, pulled a knife on her and then headbutted her before leaving the house.

Multiple witnesses also reported seeing Rogers crashing the SUV he was driving before exiting and punching a concerned civilian in the face. Police responding to the accident described Rogers as being visibly intoxicated and arrested him on suspicion of DUI, according to court documents.

Bailey succumbed to his wounds in the hospital nine days after the incident, police said at the time. He had survived three separate stabbings before his death, KREM 2 reported.

Rogers’ girlfriend, Robi Rogers, addressed the courtroom Thursday. She apologized to the victim’s family, saying that she knew how it felt hearing people speak positively about a loved one’s murderer, as she herself felt it when her own son was murdered. She asked that the judge not impose any more no-contact orders on Rogers against her and her children, because “the careless felon” also has a family that cares for him.

“I will live the rest of my life without the love of my life,” she said.

Robi Rogers also read letters written by two of her daughters, aged 11 and 13. The girls said in the letters that they knew Rogers was a good person.

Rogers’ mom, Jody Miller, stated that she does not believe her son is guilty of the crime due to a lack of evidence. She said that “the system failed Taylor.”

Officials have said Taylor Rogers said on a recorded telephone line that he was glad Bailey died and that everyone handling the legalities of his case was going to “get it.” He allegedly said in the recording that “I hate bums. I’m killing every bum I see.”

Judge Julie McKay stated that she wasn’t sure that she had seen a criminal history as full of domestic violence cases as Taylor Rogers’, and that he held an apparent disregard for Bailey’s life.

She handed Taylor Rogers a 38-year sentence to be served consecutively for charges of second-degree murder, domestic violence, burglary with a deadly weapon and multiple violations of no-contact orders.

Rogers’ attorney said that he would be submitting an appeal for the sentencing decision.