Man jailed for fatally shooting friend in Irvine

A Lancaster man who fatally shot a friend while the two were sitting in a car in Irvine was sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison Friday.

In February, a jury found David Benjamin Rodgers, 49, guilty of voluntary manslaughter for shooting and killing 44-year-old Jeanie Lynn, according to prosecutors.

In 2002, Rodgers was riding in the passenger seat of the car when Lynn stopped at Sand Canyon Avenue and Alton Parkway.

Rodgers pulled out the gun unprovoked, shot once through the windshield, turned the weapon on Lynn — shooting her through the heart and lung — and then shot two more bullets through the windshield and one through his own foot, prosecutors said.

The car rolled into an open field, and Rodgers surrendered to police soon after they arrived.

According to prosecutors, Rodgers had previously been convicted of violent crimes, making him subject to California’s three-strikes law, which gives harsher sentences to violent felons who commit a third crime.

He has previous convictions for false imprisonment, forcible sodomy and forcible oral copulation of a minor, and for sexual assault of a minor.

— Jeremiah Dobruck

Twitter: @jeremiahdobruck