Sievers murder trial set to start Tuesday at the Fort Myers courthouse

Reporter: Nicole Gabe
Published: Updated:
Mark Sievers and the late Dr. Teresa Sievers

In a matter of days, two of the people accused of murdering a beloved doctor are expected to finally face justice.

Teresa Sievers was murdered four years ago. Mark Sievers, 51, and Jimmy Rodgers, 29, will go on trial for the murder of the doctor on Tuesday morning. If convicted, they could face the death penalty.

Teresa’s husband, Mark, is accused of hiring Wayne Wright, who is also suspected of hiring Jimmy to carry out the murders.

Just twenty days before her murder, Teresa told Mark his “helicoptering is making her crazy.” She goes on to say he cares more about her than himself.

However, it is the text message that Mark sent on the morning of her murder that is eerie. He told her, “Good morning babe. I love you.”

Teresa, 46, had the back of her head bashed in and was found face down on the kitchen floor on June 29, 2015.

Lee County Sheriff’s Office deputies said her husband orchestrated the entire murder. He even took out five insurance policies on his wife, worth a combined total of $4 million.

Initially, the judge set a trial date for June 3, but it was backed due to delayed DNA reports and dozens of motions that had not been sorted through yet.

In August, attorneys for Mark and Jimmy said they received 4,700 pages of discovery from the Federal Bureau of Investigation evidence analysis report and need more time to review them.

Mark’s attorney said they are not ready for a Tuesday trial due to the severance motion granted to Rodgers. That means this allows him to have a separate trial from Mark.

“Every time we come to court, we receive more and more material,” said Kathleen Fitzgeorge, the attorney for Jimmy. “We can’t go right up to Oct. 1 wondering if we’re going to be to be ready or not.”

“The expert may go through 2000 of those pages in a day and decide it’s worthless,” said Bruce Kyle, the Lee County judge presiding over the case. “I need more information; he needs to review it; we’re still set for trial. Motion denied.”

There are many reasons why this trial is taking so long. We have also received new details in the murder case. Mark and his attorney tried to keep the jury from seeing extremely graphic pictures from the crime scene, but the judge denied that motion.

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