Three Spartanburg men sentenced for 2021 homicide where man found shot in burning car

One man was sentenced for murder and two others sentenced for accomplice crimes on Wednesday in relation to a Nov. 2021 homicide where a man was found shot and killed in a burning car.

Circuit court Judge Mark Hayes II sentenced Jamarous Deangelo Rogers, 30, of Spartanburg, to 65 total years in prison for murder, third degree arson and numerous weapons charges, according to a release sent April 24 from the 7th circuit solicitor's office. Rogers pled guilty on Sunday night, shortly before his trial was slated to begin Monday.

His co-defendants, Joseph Reymon English, 22, and Jaylan Romont Whiteside, 19, both pled guilty to accessory after the fact to murder. Hayes sentenced them each to 10 years in prison, suspended to five years in prison followed by five years of probation.

The April 24, 2024, sentencing came nearly two and a half years after police and fire personnel discovered the body of Lamar Douglas Jones, 37, in a burning Ford sedan on Blanchard Road the evening of Nov. 13, 2021, according to the release. Jones was found with dead from multiple gunshot wounds. He resided on Wofford Street in Spartanburg, according to the coroner's office.

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First responders found the Ford after responding to a one-car collision of a Jaguar sedan a half-mile away on Blanchard Road, the release said.  The Jaguar sedan's front driver's side door was open and had hit a tree. The airbags were deployed and no occupants of the Jaguar were at the scene.  First responders located two pistols and a red gas can in the driver’s seat and floorboard. A third gun was found in the Jaguar’s front passenger floorboard.

Next to the Ford where Jones was found, officers found papers "referencing" a Jaguar vehicle, the solicitor's office said.

"Through their investigation, members of the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office learned that Rogers, English and Whiteside were together with Jones in the Ford sedan when Rogers shot and killed Jones," the solicitor's office said.  "After shooting Jones, they left him in the Ford and attempted to burn the vehicle using gasoline and tequila."

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During an attempt to flee the burning vehicle, English wrecked the Jaguar into a tree and all three men fled from the collision, according to the release. Rogers’ DNA was found on the front passenger side airbag. The firearm left in the wrecked Jaguar’s front passenger floorboard was determined to be the weapon used to kill Jones.

After the sheriff’s office conducted their investigation, English, Whiteside and Rogers’ girlfriend all agreed to testify for the state in the event of a trial.

According to initial releases from the sheriff's office, Rogers was arrested on Nov. 21, 2021. Whiteside was arrested a couple weeks later on Dec. 7, 2021, and English was identified as a suspect the next day. The department identified the two as half-brothers, and both lived in Moore.

Rogers' will serve a total of 65 years in prison. However, he will serve a 30 years for the murder charge, and the sentences for the other charges will run at the same time. He was sentenced to 15 years for the arson charge, and five years each for one count of possession of a weapon during a violent crime, two counts of possession of a weapon by a convicted violent felon and one count of possession of body armor by a convicted violent felon.

Assistant Solicitor Eddie Hunter prosecuted all three men.

"Through the hard work of law enforcement and the justice system, Mr. Jones’ children will not have to grow up in a community with Jamarous Rogers on the loose," Hunter said in the solicitor's office release.

Chalmers Rogland covers public safety for the Spartanburg Herald-Journal and USA Today Network. Reach him via email at crogland@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: 3 Spartanburg men sentenced for homicide where man was found in burned car