MOTHER, SISTER OF MURDER VICTIM SPEAK TO JURY IN ROGERS' TRIAL.

Byline: Douglas Haberman Staff Writer

At times choking back tears, the mother and sister of murder victim Sandra Gallagher testified Wednesday how their family has suffered since Glen Edward Rogers killed her.

``It totally destroyed me,'' said Jan Baxter, Gallagher's mother, in halting testimony during the penalty phase of Rogers' trial.

``When my son-in-law called me and told me her pickup had been found on fire and there was a body in it, I started screaming and couldn't stop,'' she told jurors, who must decide whether to recommend the death penalty.

Gallagher was 33 when Rogers met her in a Van Nuys bar in September 1995 and strangled her. On Tuesday, the jury convicted the Florida Death Row inmate of murder.

Gallagher left behind three sons. The two youngest boys ``told me, Mammy, sometimes I can't remember my mother's face without a picture,'' Baxter testified. The oldest son has closed up emotionally, she added.

``They need their mother,'' said Baxter. ``And they don't have her.''

Gallagher's sister, Jerri Vallicella, testified that Baxter had to work, so Gallagher, who was 4-1/2 years older than Vallicella, ``was basically my momma. She did things for me a mother would normally do.''

Gallagher held many jobs, including radio talk show host, overseeing the electronics at a Navy submarine base in San Diego and assistant program director for a university that offered classes at the base.

Deputy Public Defender Jim Coady told jurors that testimony during the penalty phase will show Rogers was beaten as a child and began drinking at age 9, becoming an alcoholic. Rogers suffers brain damage from beatings, affecting his emotions and ability to show emotion, Coady said.

Such evidence ``is not an excuse,'' he said, but it will give the jurors a fuller picture of Rogers than they have.

Rogers' mother, Edna Rogers of Hamilton, Ohio, testified about the beatings she suffered at the hands of her alcoholic husband and the fear she lived in because of his behavior.

Authorities believe Rogers' killing of Gallagher was the start of a cross-country murder spree that took three other women's lives in Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida.

Rogers already has been convicted of murdering Tina Marie Gibbs in Tampa, Fla., and has been sentenced to die in Florida's electric chair. But Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said the people of California and Gallagher's family also have a right to justice in the Gallagher case.