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WENTWORTH — “Look at what Jay did to me.”

Those words played prominently in the trial of James Emmett Rogers Jr., who was acquitted Thursday of trying to kill his grandmother, Joy Moretz Rogers.

The day after her throat was slashed and she was stabbed multiple times, then-77-year-old Joy Rogers told her daughter-in-law, “Look at what Jay did to me,” according to court testimony.

She also told police that James Rogers, 29, attacked her on June 13, 2008, at her home at 1723 Delaware Ave. in Eden.

Prosecutor Julia Hejazi said those words, supported by other evidence, was enough to convict James Rogers.

But defense attorney Walt Etringer said they were the words of a delusional woman who had a history of mental problems.

The jury took less than two hours to find James Rogers not guilty of attempted first-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, inflicting serious injury.

Joy Rogers had to live in a nursing home for a while after she was released from the hospital, Hejazi told the jury. She is now living with one of her sons because she is unable to care for herself, she said.

Joy Rogers said she had given her grandson $25 earlier June 13, 2008, but that he came back for more later that night, Detective William East testified. When she refused to give it to him, she said he put a pillow over her face and stabbed her.

Joy Rogers’ phone line had been cut, so she lay bleeding in her home until late the next morning when her daughter-in-law found her.

For a while, Joy Rogers and James Rogers were in separate trauma rooms at Morehead Memorial Hospital. After smoking cocaine, James Rogers cut his arm with a crack-pipe stem.

He told police he did it because he was upset with himself for relapsing into his drug habit.

Detectives videotaped an interview with James Rogers at the hospital. It was shown to the jury Wednesday.

In the video, James Rogers admitted to drinking several beers and smoking crack, and seemed confused at times about his movements on the night of the attack.

But he repeatedly denied attacking his grandmother, and became increasingly agitated as detectives pressed him on the issue.

Hejazi told the jury during her closing argument that it was James Rogers’ craving for more crack that led him to stab his grandmother. “Crack makes people do horrible, horrible things,” she told the jury.

Police found no sign of forced entry at Joy Rogers’ home. The weapon was never found, and there was also a lack of physical evidence.

The DNA found at the scene belonged to Joy Rogers and James Rogers, and James Rogers had already admitted being at the house earlier on the night of the attack.

In his closing argument, Etringer told the jury the lack of physical evidence coupled with Joy Rogers’ mental instability created more than enough reasonable doubt.

Etringer told the jury Joy Rogers had been involuntarily committed to a state mental hospital in the early 1990s. He said that during her testimony, Joy Rogers gave the wrong time for when the attack happened, and also seemed unable to recognize her own grandson in the courtroom.

Etringer told the jury it was quite possible Joy Rogers had confused her grandson’s visit to her home earlier in the day with her attacker’s intrusion later that night.

Contact Jonnelle Davis at 627-4881, Ext. 126, or jonnelle.davis@news-record.com