Â鶹´«Ã½

On Thursday, a Burke County jury found Dylan Rogers, 32, guilty of second-degree murder and the murder of an unborn child, said Assistant District Attorney Mitch Walker. Rogers was sentenced to life in prison without parole, the maximum possible sentence for the charges.

Rogers was convicted of killing 41-year-old Brandi Deal and her unborn child when he shot into a mobile home on Clark Loop on Feb. 10, 2023. Deal was days away from giving birth to a baby girl, her boyfriend, Richard Buff, said at the time of the murder.

Walker said motive for the shooting is believed to have stemmed from a disagreement between Rogers and Buff. Buff was living in the mobile home but wasn’t there at the time of the shooting.

Deal was on the bed when Rogers fired a shotgun into the trailer and she was shot in the back, Walker said.

During the trial, prosecutors used a recording of a jail call Rogers made to a family member days after his initial arrest where he indicated he fired the gun, Walker said.

His co-defendant, 52-year-old Tammy Duckworth Boone, testified during the trial along with the medical examiner who performed the autopsy and detectives from the Burke County Sheriff’s Office, Walker said. Boone, who was indicted on the same charges as Rogers, has not gone to trial.

The first witness was called to the stand Thursday, April 3, and closing arguments wrapped up Tuesday evening. The jury began deliberations Wednesday afternoon and returned a verdict just after noon on Thursday, April 10.