Murder suspect’s coworker reveals alleged plan to kill grandparents in Chester Co. trial
CHESTER, S.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Gene Alexzander Scott is awaiting his fate in the 2020 Chester County double-murder trial.
He’s accused of killing his grandfather Gene Rogers and great-grandmother Billie Rogers.
The prosecution has been laying out its evidence since last Tuesday.
The state’s first witness Monday morning was Scott’s former friend and coworker Evan Webb. Webb says Scott proposed a job offer while he was dealing with mental health issues and financial stress after he got out of the Marine Corps in 2019.
MORE FROM QUEEN CITY NEWS
CHESTER COUNTY GRANDPARENTS
11-year-old dies in Chester County ATV wreck, sheriff’s office says
Murder suspect’s coworker reveals alleged plan to kill grandparents in Chester Co. trial
2 teens shot, 1 fatally in Chester County; suspects sought
He eventually agreed to be Scott’s alibi while he and another friend allegedly committed the murders – for $10,000. The money would come from Rogers’s life insurance policy payout of nearly $700,000.
Webb says Scott gathered him and three other friends to their apartment and hashed out the plan to kill his grandfather. Since May 14, the prosecution has presented evidence that demonstrated all four participants were experiencing financial troubles. At least two had recently separated from the Marines.
Webb testified the initial plan was to commit the crime on May 9, 2020.
Webb’s assignment was to stay at Scott’s apartment with his phone, and the other friend’s phone, so it wouldn’t ping off any towers and make it look like Scott was at his apartment with friends all day.
At trial, Webb recalled Scott’s plan on the day the killings were to happen,
“Driving up there he said that he was going to have a gas can, so he wouldn’t have to stop at any gas stations so that no cameras would catch his car,” Webb said on the witness stand. “And then whenever he got there, he was going to park roughly a mile off of wherever the house was and basically just trek through the woods to get the rest of the way there, do what he was going to do and whenever he left he was going to change the tires on his car so that the tread didn’t match up anymore.”
Scott planned to wear a weighted vest so any tracks left resembled a heavier person. Webb says he planned to take the murder weapon apart and throw it away in different places once they were done.
The group tried to carry out the plot on May 9, 2020, but Webb says that Scott and the other friend were scared off by dogs barking and chasing them through the woods that night.
Webb testified they went back on June 20, 2020, to try again. That day they succeeded.
After the plan was foiled May 9, Webb returned home to Jacksonville, North Carolina. On June 20, he says Scott called him and asked if he was still willing to be his alibi for the plan.
John Cravener, a former friend and Scott’s roommate says Scott asked him if he needed work. It came after learning Cravener had separated from the Marines and was struggling mentally and financially.
Prayer vigil held to honor fallen officers in York County
Cravener says Scott told him the job would be working with his business as a bounty hunter and paramilitary work.
Cravener moved to South Carolina with his wife and dog, and they slept on an air mattress in the living room of Scott’s apartment. He also had one other roommate as well.
Cravener testified Scott didn’t include him in the plot because he had a wife. However, he was still in the room when the deadly plan was made.
He told the jury Scott said he wanted to kill his grandfather because “he wanted revenge for his grandfather killing his parents.”
The defendant’s uncle, Aaron Scott, testified Scott’s mother Jessica passed away from a heroin overdose in November 2014. The family doesn’t know where Scott’s father is.
“Alex was named after Gene, if that tells you anything,” Aaron Scott testified. “My sister named her first child after Gene instead of our biological father. He says they treated Gene like a father, and he made them into the man he is today.”
Cravener says he hadn’t seen or spoken to Scott after the murders. A few days later, he found Scott smoking a cigarette on the balcony.
“Just casual conversation like, ‘Did you do it? Did you kill your grandparents?’” Cravener said. “And he said yes after pulling my shirt aside and checking me for a wire and then told me never to ask again.”
Cravener says from that day on, he never told anyone about the plan, even his wife.
Authorities called Cravener looking for information, and Cravener testified that he lied to investigators at least twice, saying at the time he was worried about the well-being of his wife.
Once investigators detailed the severity of the case, he requested full immunity in exchange for the truth.
A South Carolina Law Enforcement Division forensics agent testified that three weapons were examined, but none came back as being the weapon used during the alleged crime.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to Queen City News.
