Anthony King was convicted of the murders of three people in July of 1988
(Woodland, CA) – February 5, 2020 – Convicted murderer Anthony King was granted parole today by a two-commissioner panel of the Board of Parole Hearings. The hearing took place at the state prison in Corcoran, CA.
During the end of summer in 1987, King was 16 years of age and living in Knights Landing. On September 6, 1987, Steven Patton, 35, was murdered while fishing at Portuguese Bend. a popular fishing spot near Knights Landing, CA. King and his co-defendant Kenneth Bivert had befriended Mr. Patton and drank beer with him on three occasions that night. King and Bivert wanted to go joy-riding, so they later returned to the fishing spot to kill Mr. Patton. After Bivert shot Mr. Patton in the side of the face with King’s shotgun, King took the victim’s money and keys from his pockets. Together they threw Mr. Patton’s body in the river before they took his truck. After they finished their joyride, they discarded the truck in the slough nearby.
Two days later, King and Bivert killed again. They made a plan to rob the local Bank of America and decided they needed a getaway car. They returned to the same fishing spot where they found husband and wife Raymond and Dawn Rogers fishing. King was armed with Bivert’s .38-caliber special while Bivert was armed with the .44-caliber magnum. They also brought King’s 12-gauge shotgun with them. They both shot and killed Mr. and Mrs. Rogers. The autopsies indicated Mr. Rogers, 29, was shot in the back, possibly while in a stooped position. He also had a .38-caliber bullet wound to the top of his head and a separate wound on his chest. Mrs. Rogers, 32, had been shot four times in the back from a .38-caliber. She also sustained a shot in the back of the head from a large caliber weapon. King took money and the car keys from her purse while Bivert threw the fishing equipment in the river. They dumped the couple’s bodies in the river and fled in the Rogers’ car. Even after the two were apprehended in Oregon on September 11, 1987, evidence established that King and Bivert had planned to overpower the law enforcement officer who was transporting them.
A Yolo County jury convicted King of multiple counts of murder and robbery on July 8, 1988. On November 18, 1988, the Honorable James Roach sentenced King to 52-years-to-life in state prison. Bivert pled guilty to the murders on January 14, 1988, and was sentenced to 52-years-to-life for this crime. In 2001, Bivert was sentenced to the death penalty after he fatally stabbed a fellow inmate at Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad, CA.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Raven, as well as Dawn Rogers’ sister and niece and Raymond Rogers’ daughter, participated in the hearing by telephone conference. District Attorney Victim Advocate Kenya Salazar-Campos supported the family members of the victims.
Commissioners Rosalio Castro and Christopher Uroni agreed that Mr. King no longer posed an unreasonable risk to society if released. Commissioner Castro told Mr. King, “you are now 49 years old. Your change is a complete turn-around from what we saw when you were 16. We felt you showed good insight and remorse and you have realistic parole plans.”
Raven commented on some of the concerning issues raised by the psychologist who wrote Mr. King’s lengthy Comprehensive Risk Assessment but did not argue in opposition of parole. “Mr. King has been given a second chance by Commissioners Castro and Uroni,” said Raven. “I hope he earns it by living a crime free life in society and using his time to help and support others in honor of the victims Steve Patton, Dawn Rogers and Raymond Rogers.”
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