Page 1 of 4 123 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 55

Thread: Rosendo Rodriguez III - Texas Execution - March 27, 2018

Hybrid View

Previous Post Previous Post   Next Post Next Post
  1. #1
    Guest
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    5,534

    Rosendo Rodriguez III - Texas Execution - March 27, 2018


    Summer Baldwin


    Joanna Rogers




    Summary of Offense:

    Sentenced to death in Randall County in 2008 for the murder of 29-year-old Summer Baldwin and her unborn child in 2005. He had also murdered 16-year-old Joanna Rogers in 2004.

  2. #2
    Guest
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    5,534
    April 1, 2008

    Rosendo Rodriguez Sentenced to Death

    After three and a half hours of deliberations, a Randall County jury has sentenced Rosendo Rodriguez to the death penalty.

    Last Friday, the same jury found Rodriguez guilty on two counts of capital murder in the death of Summer Baldwin and her unborn child. Her body was found in a Lubbock landfill in 2005.

    Both the prosecution and the defense asked the jury to consider two issues:

    Does Rodriguez have the potential to commit future criminal acts and hurt anyone else?

    Despite his conviction, does he still have good character?

    The defense told jurors that "we only need to kill the worst of the worst," and reminded them to vote their conscience and stick to their guns.

    Prosecutors reminded jurors that Rodriguez showed Summer Baldwin no mercy, and that his actions are responsible for his fate.

    (Source: The Associated Press)

  3. #3
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Judge recommends 'Suitcase Killer' Rodriguez's latest appeal be denied

    A Lubbock judge has recommended the state’s highest court deny “Suitcase Killer” Rosendo Rodriguez III’s latest appeal to avoid execution for the 2005 murder of a Lubbock prostitute and her unborn child.

    District Judge Jim Bob Darnell said in an 83-page document he found no new information or issues of merit in Rodriguez’s plea to set aside his capital murder conviction on 21 different grounds, primarily based on contentions of juror misconduct and that he received inadequate legal representation from his arrest through his court appeals.

    He also claimed his attorneys should have stopped him from reneging on a plea deal — that would have resulted in a life sentence — by providing details about the disappearance of a 16-year-old Lubbock girl in 2004, whose body was later found stuffed in a suitcase and buried in a landfill.

    Darnell’s recommendation will go to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals for a final review and ruling. If the state appellate court agrees with Darnell’s findings, Rodriguez’s last option is a federal habeas corpus petition to review the case.

    A jury in Canyon convicted Rodriguez in 2008 of capital murder in the death of Summer Baldwin, 29, in a Lubbock hotel room while he was in town for Marine Corps Reserve training. Evidence at trial showed Rodriguez bought a suitcase at Walmart. He stuffed Baldwin’s pregnant body in the suitcase and put it into a commercial trash bin.

    Rodriguez told investigators he’d been defending himself from Baldwin when she died. He admitted they’d had consensual sex, and told detectives she then began smoking crack. He said he took the pipe away from her and she attacked him with a pair of knives. He said he then put her in a chokehold.

    Rodriguez’s contentions he received poor advice from lawyers began with the initial investigation and extended through the appeal to the state’s Court of Criminal Appeals.

    His contentions included suggestions that his lawyers should have kept him from confessing to police, and prompted him to accept prosecutors’ offer of a deal.

    Rodriguez’s initial attorney, Albert Rodriguez, had contacted Lubbock police and given them Baldwin’s knives and arranged for his client to give that version of the story. Rodriguez’s father, Wichita Falls attorney Rosendo Rodriguez Jr., retained Albert Rodriguez to represent his son. The plea deal was arranged by another attorney, Jeff Blackburn, who Darnell noted agreed to take the case with the intention of putting a plea agreement together rather than going to trial.

    Under that deal, Rodriguez would tell what he knew about the 2004 disappearance of a 16-year-old Lubbock girl, Joanna Rogers. If the body was recovered, Rodriguez would get a life sentence. Rodriguez told investigators he’d had sex with Rogers, and when she asked him for money, he choked her to death. He then put her body in a suitcase and put it in a trash container.

    Sheriff’s deputies searched the city’s landfill for about two months before finding a suitcase with a body inside.

    Rodriguez’s attorney notified lead prosecutor Matt Powell that his client was backing out of the deal on the day the plea was scheduled to be made in Darnell’s court. Powell withdrew the offer and took the case to trial.

    http://www.myplainview.com/area_head...9bb2963f4.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  4. #4
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    On direct appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Rodriguez’s forty-two points of error were found to be without merit. Consequently, the TCCA affirmed the trial court’s judgment and sentence of death.

    Opinion here

  5. #5
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    They sure are slow with the news in Lubbock.

    Death penalty stands for Lubbock convict, appeals court says

    The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has rejected the claims of Rosendo Rodriguez, now 31, in his Lubbock death penalty case. Rodriguez was convicted in 2008 for the 2005 murder of Summer Baldwin, 29. Her body was found in the Lubbock landfill; it had been stuffed in a suitcase and thrown into a dumpster.

    Rodriguez claims 42 points of error at trial, all of which were rejected by the appeals court on March 16th.

    Rodriguez claims that he had consensual relations with Baldwin in the early morning hours of September 12th, 2005. He further claims that afterward she attacked him with a knife, and he choked her in self-defense. The jury didn't buy it after there was evidence that she was attacked from behind.

    It was actually a jury in Randall County that convicted Rodriguez because the trial was moved on a change of venue.

    Court records say, "The evidence shows that Baldwin received approximately fifty blunt force wounds at or before the time of her death, that Rodriguez manually strangled her, and that these injuries were sufficient to cause her death."

    The appellate court not only found that there was sufficient evidence for a jury to think her death was both intentional and murder, but the justices also believe there was enough evidence for a reasonable jury to conclude that Baldwin had been raped.

    In Texas, the commission of murder along with another felony such as Aggravated Sexual Assault is what qualifies a case as Capital Murder.

    Attorneys for Rodriguez also attacked the punishment phase in which he was sentenced to death rather than life in prison. But once again, justices were unsympathetic.

    Court records say, "After this, he purchased a large meal, ate it, rented and watched a movie, and then slept before checking out of his hotel room. This evidence of such a callous crime could, on its own, support a finding of future dangerousness."

    "We affirm the trial court's judgment and sentence of death." The ruling is described as "the opinion for a unanimous Court."

    http://www.kcbd.com/Global/story.asp?S=14355999

  6. #6
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    In today's Texas Court of Criminal Appeals orders, Rodriguez's petition to rehear was denied.

  7. #7
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    EX PARTE ROSENDO RODRIGUEZ, III

    In today's TCCA orders, Rodriguez's application for a writ of habeas corpus was DENIED.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  8. #8
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    In today's United States Supreme Court orders, Rodriguez's petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis was DENIED.

  9. #9
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Article

    Texas court rejects body-in-luggage appeal

    A San Antonio man condemned for the 2005 slaying of a pregnant Lubbock woman whose body was stuffed inside a piece of luggage found at the Lubbock city landfill has lost an appeal at Texas' highest criminal court.

    The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday agreed with the Lubbock trial court which rejected an appeal from 33-year-old Rosendo Rodriguez. He's on death row for the fatal beating and choking of 29-year-old Summer Baldwin. She's identified in court documents as a drug-addicted prostitute 10 weeks pregnant.

    Rodriguez was a Marine reservist training in Lubbock. He contended the slaying was in self-defense. He said he went to a Walmart, bought the suitcase, put her body in it and tossed it in a trash bin.

    Rodriguez doesn't have an execution date.

    http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/05...#storylink=cpy
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  10. #10
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    13,014
    On August 6, 2014, Rodriguez filed a habeas petition in Federal District Court.

    http://dockets.justia.com/docket/tex...cv00233/238691

Page 1 of 4 123 ... LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •