James Darryl Rogers was a 29-year-old Black man found dead in the basement of his Wilmington home in the 500 block of West 4th Street on July 23, 2015. He suffered gunshot wounds to the head and was pronounced dead at the scene. Court filings state the man later convicted, Taushia Mitchell, acknowledged shooting Rogers twice in the head while Rogers was asleep.

Investigators say Mitchell took Rogers’s vehicle and left Delaware; about a week later he was located in New York City in the stolen car and taken into custody. A Delaware grand jury indicted Mitchell in October 2015 on first-degree murder, firearm and theft-related charges. At a jury trial in June 2017 Mitchell pleaded guilty to reduced charges of second-degree murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. He received a total of 35 years in prison followed by two years of probation.

Records do not establish a clearly proven motive at the time of arrest; years later Mitchell alleged Rogers had abused him and others, a claim presented in post-conviction filings rather than as a judicial finding. Does anyone have information about Rogers’s life in Wilmington or about the events leading up to July 23, 2015?