Mark Rogowski

As of June 2019, Rogowski is incarcerated at Donovan State Prison,

On December 10th 2019 multiple media reports indicate that Rogowski's parole board recommended parole. The California Board of Parole Hearings will finalize the decision within 120 days. After that the case would go before governor Gavin Newsom for review. On April 27th 2020, Rogowski's parole grant was reversed by governor Gavin Newsom, stating that Rogowski needed to gain a "deeper understanding" of his crimes.

Following the end of his relationship with McClain, Rogowski became obsessively jealous: he forcibly entered her home to steal gifts he had given her; he made threatening telephone calls to McClain's new boyfriend's home; and he also threatened McClain directly. McClain informed the police about Rogowski's behavior—the police filed a report, but the situation was not monitored continuously.

Rogowski was denied parole on February 7, 2011. Deputy District Attorney Richard Sachs argued that Rogowski remained an "unreasonable risk to society" and should remain imprisoned, while a family member of Bergsten also attended the hearing and requested that Rogowski remain incarcerated. On February 6, 2015, another parole hearing was scheduled, but Rogowski waived his right to a hearing for one year. On March 9, 2016, he was again denied parole for seven years. Rogowski will not be eligible for parole again until March 2023, which marks the minimum of his sentence.

A feature documentary that examines Mark Rogowski's trajectory, Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator, was released in 2002 by Palm Pictures. The film was written, directed and produced by Helen Stickler, and features interviews with other professional skateboarders like Tony Hawk, Kevin Staab, Lance Mountain, Ken Park, Steve Caballero, Jason Jessee, Craig Johnson, Stacy Peralta, and Rogowski himself. Since California law prohibits video interviews with prison inmates, Rogowski was interviewed over the recorded prison phone for the documentary where he gave details on his life's background, his subsequent downfall, and remorse for murdering Jessica Bergsten.

Following the advice of his attorney, Rogowski pled guilty to first-degree murder and rape, thus avoiding the death penalty or life without the chance of parole. In January 1992, at the plea hearing, Gator submitted a four-page written statement. He accepted responsibility for his acts, but also blamed himself for having sex outside of marriage, for being promiscuous, and for not following the word of the Bible.

Rogowski was sentenced on March 6, 1992. Five uniformed bailiffs with metal detectors were at the hearing due to a rumor that Stephen Bergsten (the father of the victim) would attempt to harm Rogowski. Bergsten had lost two properties due to his involvement with a nationwide drug ring and he allegedly had nothing to lose by harming Rogowski. With the bailiffs standing between Rogowski and Bergsten, Rogowski offered an apology while Bergsten shouted back that he "was a coward" who would "die a thousand deaths".

On March 20, 1991, Rogowski received a call from 22-year-old Bergsten, whom he had not spoken to in years, as she had recently moved to California. Bergsten asked Rogowski to show her around San Diego. They spent a day together on March 21, 1991; shortly after, Bergsten was reported missing. According to Rogowski, he and Bergsten went back to his condo to watch movies and drink wine. He admitted to coming up behind her and hitting her in the head with a Club (a metal auto anti-theft device). After knocking her semi-unconscious by way of several strikes, he handcuffed her and dragged her to his bedroom on the second floor and raped her while she was shackled to his bed. Afterward, he placed her in a surfboard bag because he was concerned about the neighbors hearing the noise. Rogowski placed his hand over Bergsten's mouth until she stopped breathing and then drove the body to the Shell Canyon desert, where he disposed of the corpse in a shallow grave.

Bergsten's body was found by campers on April 10, 1991, but it was so decomposed that it could not be identified. Plagued by guilt, Rogowski informed Constantino of what he had done: "Remember that girl from the poster? She was the one I killed." Constantino encouraged Rogowski to confess his crime to the police—which Rogowski did—thereby waiving his legal rights.

Rogowski turned himself in on April 11, 1991 and led the police to the burial site where he had disposed of Bergsten's body. The police then searched his home and found evidence of blood, which had soaked through the carpet padding and into the floorboards in two small spots, adjacent to where Bergsten's head had allegedly rested. In his confession, Rogowski conveyed that he had killed Bergsten in a misplaced act of revenge towards McClain, calling Bergsten the "mold Brandi was made out of." Upon entering prison, Rogowski was diagnosed with a severe case of bipolar disorder.

Rogowski worked as a stunt double on the 1989 film Gleaming the Cube, which starred Christian Slater, and appeared, along with McClain, in the music video Free Fallin' by Tom Petty.

At a 1987 skate show in Scottsdale, Arizona, U.S., Rogowski was introduced to Brandi McClain and her good friend Jessica Bergsten, an aspiring model. Soon afterward, he began a tumultuous long-term relationship with McClain—they appeared together in numerous advertisements and promotional videos for Vision, which had become one of the top-selling skateboarding brands of the 1980s.

Rogowski started his professional skateboarding career in 1980 at age 14. In 1982, he won his first major contest, the Canadian Amateur Skateboarding Championships in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In 1984, he won a national championship. Rogowski received endorsement deals from Gullwing Trucks early in his career, Rogowski was being paid "between $4,000 and $8,000 a month" for clothing and skateboarding equipment endorsements. By 1987, Rogowski was earning two dollars per skate deck from Vision, which was selling 7000 decks on a monthly basis, resulting in royalties totaling US$14,000 for Rogowski (US$ 30,000 in 2020). Additionally, Vision was also selling T-shirts, berets, hip packs, and stickers using the "Gator" name.

Rogowski was one of a group of elite skaters who enjoyed significant fame in the 1980s, alongside Christian Hosoi, Tony Hawk, Lance Mountain and Steve Caballero. He was a charismatic, flamboyant personality who received fame and fortune during skateboarding's return to popularity following the success of vert skating.

Rogowski's popularity began to wane as the vert skating that was popular in the 1980s was supplanted by street skateboarding in the 1990s. Vision, the company that he had spent the majority of his career with, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Looking to reinvent himself, Rogowski changed his name to "Gator" Mark Anthony, explaining that "Rogowski" was the name of his father whom he had never really known.

Rogowski was born in Brooklyn, New York, but he moved to Escondido, California, at the age of three after his parents divorced. Rogowski was a gifted athlete, playing little league baseball in his youth. Rogowski started to skateboard at age seven and, while most of his friends were into surfing, he eventually started to hang out at skate parks several years later. After two years of skating local parks, Rogowski was picked up at 12 years of age by a local skate team in 1978.

Mark Anthony "Gator" Rogowski (born August 10, 1966) is an American former professional skateboarder who was convicted of murder. He was mainly prominent in the 1980s and early 1990s. His career ended when he pled guilty for assaulting, raping and murdering Jessica Bergsten in 1992. His life was chronicled in a critically acclaimed 2003 documentary titled Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator by American filmmaker Helen Stickler.