An attorney for Jimmy Ray Rodgers called for his acquittal in a brief filed Tuesday. Rodgers was convicted of second-degree murder in the 2015 bludgeoning death of a Bonita Springs doctor.
Rodgers originally faced a first-degree murder charge and the possibility of the death penalty as one of three men charged in the murder of Teresa Sievers.
A Lee County jury found Rodgers guilty of the lesser charge of second-degree murder, as well as trespassing, in October 2019. Rodgers was sentenced to life in prison in December 2019.
Rodgers is being represented by Naples attorney Samantha Stevins in his appellate case being heard in the Florida Second District Court of Appeal.