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Thread: Juan Carlos Rodriguez - North Carolina

  1. #1
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    Juan Carlos Rodriguez - North Carolina


    Maria Magdalena Rodriguez


    Juan Carlos Rodriguez


    Attorneys for man accused of killing wife want death penalty option removed

    The attorneys for a Winston-Salem man charged with kidnapping and killing his wife about three years ago want the death penalty taken off the table because Winston-Salem police destroyed the original files in the investigation.

    Copies of the files are available through a document management system, but attorneys for Juan Carlos Rodriguez allege an irreparable discovery violation because the original files are no longer available, according to a motion filed Oct. 15 in Forsyth Superior Court.

    Rodriguez, 37, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Maria Magdalena Rodriguez, 31. Her decapitated body was found Dec. 12, 2010, at the end of Williamsburg Road in the Minorcas Creek area off Bethabara Park Road. She was reported missing after she left the couple’s Trellis Lane home Nov. 18, 2010.

    Judge Gary Gavenus of Forsyth Superior Court ruled last year that prosecutors could seek the death penalty, based on two of 11 possible aggravating factors — that Maria Rodriguez’s murder was “especially heinous, atrocious and cruel” and that she was killed during the commission of another felony, which was kidnapping.

    Robert Campbell and Kim Stevens filed their motion a day after Judge William Z. Wood of Forsyth Superior Court held a hearing in which the two attorneys sought to inspect original investigative files from several law-enforcement agencies, including the Winston-Salem Police Department. Several law-enforcement agencies were involved in the search for Maria Rodriguez. The search stretched from Winston-Salem to Eden and as far north as Danville, Va.

    Campbell and Stevens say in the motion that prosecutors Jennifer Martin and Patrick Weede, as well as an attorney for the police department, spoke in opposition to their request to inspect the original files.

    Wood issued an order filed Oct. 18 that allows Campbell and Stevens to inspect the original investigative files, not copies, from the Winston-Salem Police Department and the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office.

    But Campbell and Stevens allege in the motion that prosecutors cannot comply with that order because the original files don’t exist anymore. They say in the motion that on the day after the hearing, Oct. 15, they received an email from Martin, telling them that the Winston-Salem Police Department had destroyed the original files and that the reports are only available through a document management system called Application Extender.

    “Long story short, the WSPD doesn’t have the original reports any longer,” Martin said in the email, which is included with the motion.

    Martin said in the email that the only original paperwork in the case is forms that Rodriguez signed waiving his rights to have an attorney present during police questioning.

    Martin said Tuesday that the rules of professional responsibility prevent her from commenting on a pending legal matter. Campbell also declined to comment, saying it is a pending legal matter.

    Lori Sykes, a city attorney who represents the Winston-Salem Police Department, said that paper records are scanned into Application Extender, which she describes as a central and secure means to maintaining police reports. The department does not destroy any paper record, she said, until police staff verifies that every page in the case file folder has been scanned and is legible.

    According to Winston-Salem police policy, incident reports in a felony have to be kept for a period of 20 years.

    Campbell and Stevens argue in the motion that Rodriguez’s constitutional rights have been violated as a result of the police destroying the original files and that a Forsyth County judge should dismiss the case or at the very least take the death penalty off the table, meaning that if Rodriguez is convicted, he would only face life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    They also ask that a judge hold an evidentiary hearing to “determine when these files were destroyed, how they were destroyed, who gave permission for the original law enforcement files to be destroyed, and who had knowledge that these files were destroyed prior to the hearing conducted on Oct. 14, 2013, in Forsyth Superior Court.”

    A hearing on the motion has not been set. Rodriguez’s trial is set to start Jan. 27 in Forsyth Superior Court.

    http://www.journalnow.com/news/local...a4bcf6878.html
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    Attorneys in murder case contend police destroyed original files; want death penalty struck

    The Winston-Salem Police Department violated its own polices and state law in destroying the original investigative files in the death penalty case of a man accused of kidnapping and decapitating his wife three years ago, defense attorneys argued Thursday.

    Copies of those files are available through a document management system, but the attorneys for Juan Carlos Rodriguez contend that copies are not enough because some of them are “incomplete, at times illegible, and materially deficient.”

    Rodriguez, 37, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Maria Magdalena Rodriguez, 31, whose body was found Dec. 12, 2010, at the end of Williamsburg Road in the Minorcas Creek area off Bethabara Park Road. She was reported missing after she left the couple’s Trellis Lane home on Nov. 18, 2010. A murder trial in the case is scheduled to start Jan. 27.

    At issue are an unknown number of field notes that Winston-Salem police officers took while investigating Maria Rodriguez’s death. Rodriguez’s attorneys, Kim Stevens and Robert Campbell, say those field notes are critical in helping to determine when Maria Rodriguez was killed.

    They contend in court papers that Juan Rodriguez was in the Forsyth County Jail when his wife was killed. They also argue that the Winston-Salem Police Department failed to collect crucial physical evidence, including soil and tissue samples.

    That leaves, they say, only video and photographs taken at the crime scene and at autopsy as well as the investigative notes that police officers and detectives wrote.

    “Now, the defendant has learned, the original investigative files of the Winston-Salem Police Department have been destroyed,” Stevens and Campbell wrote in a memorandum of law filed Thursday. “Those original files are critical and material to the defense of this case.”

    The memorandum was in support of a motion to impose sanctions and to strike the death penalty that Stevens and Campbell filed in Forsyth Superior Court on Oct. 15.

    The motion was filed in reaction to an email that Stevens and Campbell say they received from Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Martin the day after Judge William Z. Wood had ordered that they be allowed to inspect the original investigative files from the Winston-Salem Police Department.

    Martin told Stevens and Campbell in the email, which was included with the motion, that the original reports are no longer available.

    “Long story short, the WSPD doesn’t have the original reports any longer,” Martin said in the email.

    During a hearing Thursday before Wood, Martin said that she misspoke when she said that original files had been destroyed. Detectives and police officers type many of their investigative and supplemental reports into a computer, which can then be printed, she said. That means that there really are no “original” files, she said.

    The only original files would be handwritten field notes, she said. Depending on the officer or detective, those field notes are either kept or shredded. But either way, the notes are scanned into a document management system called Application Extender, she said.

    Lori Sykes, a city attorney who represents the Winston-Salem Police Department, said in a previous interview that paper documents are not destroyed until police staff verifies that every page in the case file folder has been scanned and is legible.

    Sykes argued in court Thursday that state law allows the police department to destroy paper records as long as they are maintained in either electronic form or microfiche.

    Campbell said in court that state law is clear on the issue — law-enforcement is required to maintain original files as long as a criminal case is pending in court. He and Stevens also argue that it’s impossible to tell what might be missing from the field notes if they only have copies that were scanned.

    Wood appeared to agree, but he continued the hearing until Wednesday so that Winston-Salem police and prosecutors can determine how many officers involved in the case kept their field notes. During a 90-minute recess Thursday morning, they were able to determine that at least 19 police officers still had their field notes.

    When Stevens emphasized that police should not have destroyed or shredded any field notes, Wood replied: “If the state wants to strike the death penalty (by not complying with the law), I can’t stop them.”

    http://www.journalnow.com/news/local...a4bcf6878.html
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    Judge dismisses motion; rules that death penalty in case still in play

    The death penalty is still on the table for a Winston-Salem man accused of kidnapping and decapitating his wife three years ago, a Forsyth Coun ty judge ruled Wednesday.

    Juan Carlos Rodriguez is charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Maria Magdalena Rodriguez, 31. Her body was found Dec. 12, 2010, at the end of Williamsburg Road in the Minorcas Creek area off Bethabara Park Road. She was reported missing after she left the couple’s Trellis Lane Home on Nov. 18, 2010.

    Robert Campbell and Kim Stevens, attorneys for Juan Rodriguez, argued in a hearing Wednesday that the Winston-Salem Police Department violated its own policies and state law in destroying original investigative files in the case, particularly field notes.

    They argued that the destruction of the field notes constituted an irreparable discovery violation and asked that Judge William Z. Wood of Forsyth Superior Court impose sanctions and strike the death penalty from the case.

    After a nearly three-hour hearing Wednesday, Wood dismissed the motion filed by Campbell and Stevens, meaning that Rodriguez will continue to face the death penalty.

    The trial is scheduled to start Jan. 27.

    Copies of the investigative files are available through a document management system, but Stevens and Campbell argued that those copies are not enough because some of them are “incomplete, at times illegible, and materially deficient.”

    On Wednesday, Sgt. Tim Taylor testified that he and Lt. Rob Cozart tried to contact 81 police officers and detectives who helped investigate to determine if they still had their original field notes. At least eight police officers indicated they did not have their field notes.

    During cross-examination, Campbell noted that there were officers at the crime scene whose names were not on the list, including the name of the police officer who was the first to see the body of Maria Rodriguez.

    But Det. Sean Flynn of the Winston-Salem Police Department said under examination by prosecutors that some police officers at the crime scene did not participate in the investigation and, as a result, were not required to write notes or reports.

    Flynn also testified that some field notes were discovered recently during a review of the investigative files that was ordered by Wood. Campbell and Stevens argued that was proof that the scanning process the police department uses is imperfect.

    Lori Sykes, a city attorney who represents the Winston-Salem Police Department, had said in a previous interview that paper documents are not destroyed until police staff verifies that every page in the case file folder has been scanned and is legible.

    She also argued last week in court that state law allows the police department to destroy paper records as long as they are maintained in either electronic form or microfiche.

    Campbell and Stevens strongly disagreed with that interpretation of state law.

    Forsyth County District Attorney Jim O’Neill said in court Wednesday that state law makes no mention of the word “original.”

    Wood said in his ruling that the police department and prosecutors have complied with state law and that he had not heard anything that has unfairly prejudiced Juan Rodriguez.

    “You’ve not been surprised,” he said.

    http://www.journalnow.com/news/local...a4bcf6878.html
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    Detective: Children saw father carry mother out after altercation night before she disappeared

    By Michael Hewlett
    The Winston-Salem Journal

    The night before Maria Magdalena Rodriguez went missing, her three children heard an altercation between their parents and then later saw their father carry their mother over his shoulder, put her in the back seat of his car and drive away, a Winston-Salem detective testified Tuesday in Forsyth Superior Court.

    Her decapitated body was found Dec. 12, 2010, at the end of Williamsburg Road in the Minorcas Creek area off Bethabara Park Road. Her husband, Juan Carlos Rodriguez, who is in his late 30s, is charged with first-degree murder in connection with her death and is facing the death penalty if convicted. He is scheduled to go on trial next week.

    Det. Stan Nieves of the Winston-Salem Police Department testified Tuesday as part of a pretrial motion to determine whether certain evidence will be admissible. Nieves was the lead detective in the investigation of Maria Rodriguez’s death. Judge Stuart Albright of Forsyth Superior Court said in court that he will likely rule later on the motion but will continue to hear evidence in the case later this week.

    Nieves testified Tuesday that Maria Rodriguez was reported missing Nov. 19, 2010. He said that her three children — 6, 11 and 13 years old at the time — were at the couple’s apartment on Trellis Lane on the night of Nov. 18, 2010.

    He said the couple was separated at the time and that there was a history of domestic violence. Nieves said that Juan Rodriguez arrived home that night and went into the bedroom with his wife. The children told authorities that they heard arguing and then a commotion that sounded like banging or something hitting the floor, Nieves said.

    He said the children heard their mother screaming for help, and one of the children grabbed a fork to try to open the locked bedroom door.

    According to the children, Nieves testified, Juan Rodriguez opened the door and they saw their mother lying on the floor, crying. Juan Rodriguez told his children that their mother had tried to hit him and that she had hit a dresser, Nieves said.

    Juan Rodriguez told the children not to call the police or he would go to jail. He closed the bedroom door and then later came out carrying Maria Rodriguez, Nieves said. The children told authorities that their father’s clothes were bloody, and that their mother was breathing hard and bleeding from her nose and from a spot on her head, according to Nieves.

    The children went to a family that lived nearby and told the family that their mother was hurt and that their father was taking her to the hospital, Nieves said. Later that night, Juan Rodriguez was contacted by the neighbor family and told the family that he had taken his wife to Forsyth Medical Center and to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and that neither could treat her, according to Nieves.

    He said that his wife wanted to go to Boston, where her father lived, and that a helicopter transported her to a hospital in Boston, Nieves testified. When investigators checked with the hospitals, neither had a record of Maria Rodriguez, Nieves said.

    On Nov. 21, 2010, investigators located Juan Rodriguez in Eden, where he was staying with a friend. He was interviewed at the Eden Police Department and told investigators that Maria Rodriguez had lunged at him and had hit her head on a dresser.

    Juan Rodriguez told police that he tried to take her to the hospital but that she refused, jumping out of the car, Nieves said. Juan Rodriguez said he tried to find her but couldn’t and returned to the apartment, Nieves said.

    Nieves testified that when he went to the apartment, he found blood on a bed frame and a large amount of blood on the carpet in the bedroom where the children said the two had the altercation.

    In previous motions, Kim Stevens and Robert Campbell, the attorneys for Juan Rodriguez, have argued that Rodriguez was in the Forsyth County Jail when his wife was killed. Winston-Salem police had initially charged Rodriguez with kidnapping and assault in connection with her disappearance. He was charged with first-degree murder after his wife’s body was found about a month later.

    Pretrial motions are expected to continue through the rest of this week, and jury selection is scheduled to start Monday. The trial could last between four to six weeks.

    http://www.journalnow.com/news/local...a4bcf6878.html

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    Jury selected in first-degree murder case

    Jury selection ended Thursday in the first-degree murder trial of Juan Carlos Rodriguez, who is accused of killing and decapitating his wife, Maria Magdalena Rodriguez, in 2010.

    A pool of 143 potential jurors was brought into Forsyth Superior Court Monday, and jury selection had been estimated to take up to two weeks. Instead, a jury of 12 people, along with three alternates, was chosen in four days.

    Judge Stuart Albright of Forsyth Superior Court agreed to have opening statements start Monday morning. After the opening statements, Forsyth County prosecutors will begin presenting evidence in the case.

    Maria Rodriguez, 31, was reported missing Nov. 19, 2010, and her body was found Dec. 12, 2010, at the end of Williamsburg Road in the Minorcas Creek area off Bethabara Park Road. Her skull was found May 29, 2013, in a wooded area in Forsyth County, Det. Stan Nieves of the Winston-Salem Police Department said during a hearing on pre-trial motions last week.

    Juan Rodriguez has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder as well as first-degree kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury in connection with his wife’s disappearance and death. He could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder. The only other penalty for a conviction for first-degree murder is life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    The trial had been estimated to last six to eight weeks, but Kim Stevens, one of Rodriguez’s attorneys, said in court that that estimate was based on a lengthy jury selection. She said she now estimates that the trial could last three to four weeks.

    According to testimony during pre-trial motions last week, the night before Maria Rodriguez disappeared, her three children heard an altercation between their parents. Nieves testified that that the children first saw their mother lying on the floor after their father opened the door. Later, Nieves said, the children saw their father carry their mother over his shoulder, put her in the car and drive away.

    The couple was separated at the time, and Juan Rodriguez was living with his cousin at a house on Williamsburg Road, near where Maria Rodriguez’s body was later found.

    Nieves said Juan Rodriguez told his children and later police that Maria Rodriguez had lunged at him during the altercation, missed and hit her head on a dresser.

    Stevens and Robert Campbell, Rodriguez’s other attorney, have said that Rodriguez was in the Forsyth County Jail at the time his wife was killed. Rodriguez was arrested Nov. 21, 2010 and initially charged with kidnapping and assault.

    Stevens and Campbell also have argued that the Winston-Salem Police Department failed to collect crucial physical evidence, including soil and tissue samples. They have argued that the police destroyed original investigative files, particularly field notes that officers took while investigating Maria Rodriguez’s death that they said would be critical in determining when Maria Rodriguez died.

    Prosecutors have argued that all investigative files and field notes were scanned into a document management system.

    This is the first death-penalty case brought to trial in Forsyth County since 2010, when Timothy Hartford was sentenced to death for killing Meals on Wheels volunteer Anne Magness, 77, and Bob Denning, 64, who was getting a meal from Anne Magness, and her husband, Bill Magness. Bill Magness was shot several times but survived.

    http://www.journalnow.com/news/local...5258d1a6d.html
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    Death penalty trial starts in case of man accused of killing, decapitating wife

    By Michael Hewlett
    The Winston-Salem Journal

    Through a closed bedroom door, Maria Magdalena Rodriguez’s children heard her cry “Ayudame!” — Spanish for “help me” — over and over, Assistant District Attorney Patrick Weede said in opening statements Monday in the first-degree murder trial of Maria’s husband, Juan Carlos Rodriguez.

    Then the three children saw Juan Rodriguez, his clothes and knuckles bloody, carry their mother over his shoulder out of an apartment on Trellis Lane, place her in the back seat of his car and drive away, Weede said. Maria Rodriguez was still alive, bleeding from the head and breathing heavily, he said.

    The next day, Maria Rodriguez was reported missing and 24 days later, on Dec. 12, 2010, her decapitated body was found off Williamsburg Road in the Minorcas Creek area off Bethabara Park Road. Weede said her skull was found May 29, 2013, in a wooded area near Belews Creek. Weede said Juan Rodriguez strangled his wife to death.

    Weede said evidence will show that in the months before Maria Rodriguez disappeared, she told close friends that her husband had physically abused her and threatened to kill her and throw her body in the river. Merilyn Rodriguez, one of Maria’s friends and not related to either Maria or Juan Rodriguez, testified that Maria told her on Nov. 17, 2010, that her husband said no one would find her body if he killed her because no one cared about her.

    Weede argued that Juan Rodriguez told friends and police several different stories that didn’t match the evidence — that Maria Rodriguez left the house on Nov. 18, 2010, and never came back; that he took her to the hospital but couldn’t get treatment for her; and that he was on his way to the hospital when she got out of the car at a stop light.

    Kim Stevens, one of Juan Rodriguez’s attorneys, argued in opening statements that Maria Rodriguez was killed after Dec. 1, 2010, when Juan Rodriguez was in the Forsyth County Jail on kidnapping and assault charges related to his wife’s disappearance. Juan Rodriguez was arrested Nov. 21, 2010.

    Stevens said that based on the condition of Maria Rodriguez’s body when she was found, she was likely killed seven to 10 days before her body was discovered. Her body was in the beginning stages of decomposition, Stevens said in opening statements.

    Juan Rodriguez could face the death penalty if he is convicted of first-degree murder in Maria Rodriguez’s death. The trial is expected to last three to four weeks.

    http://www.journalnow.com/news/local...71beb73bd.html

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    Detective: Defendant stuck to story even when given false information by police

    Juan Carlos Rodriguez continued to insist that his wife, Maria Magdalena Rodriguez, got out of his car at a stop light en route to the hospital, even after the lead detective falsely told him that there were surveillance cameras in the area, according to testimony Tuesday in Forsyth Superior Court.

    Juan Rodriguez, 38, is on trial for first-degree murder in the death of his wife, who was reported missing Nov. 19, 2010, and whose decapitated body was found Dec. 12, 2010, at the end of Williamsburg Road in the Minorcas Creek area off Bethabara Park Road. He was interviewed Nov. 21, 2010, at the Eden Police Department, where Winston-Salem police detectives located him.

    Under cross-examination Tuesday by Robert Campbell, Rodriguez’s attorney, Det. Stan Nieves of the Winston-Salem Police Department acknowledged that there were no surveillance cameras in the La Deara Crest area near where Juan Rodriguez said his wife got out of the car. Nieves said he intentionally gave Juan Rodriguez false information as an interrogation technique to determine if he were telling the truth.

    Nieves said that Juan Rodriguez had told authorities that he and his wife had gotten into an argument at her apartment on Trellis Lane in the La Deara Crest community, and that his wife had lunged at him and hit her head on a dresser. Juan Rodriguez said in the interview that he carried her out of the apartment, placed her in the back seat of his car and was driving to the hospital, when she asked where they were going, Nieves testified.

    According to Nieves, Juan Rodriguez said his wife got out of the car when they were stopped at an intersection and he could not find her.

    Under cross-examination, Nieves said that Juan Rodriguez continued to stick to that story even after being falsely told that there were cameras in the area.

    Nieves also testified that he found no physical evidence that Maria Rodriguez was at the intersection where Juan Rodriguez said she got out of the car. According to his investigation, Maria Rodriguez was bleeding from the head, Nieves said.

    Campbell and Kim Stevens, Rodriguez’s attorneys, have argued that Juan Rodriguez was in the Forsyth County Jail on charges of kidnapping and assaulting his wife when she was killed. They allege that Maria Rodriguez was killed after Dec. 1, 2010.

    The trial is expected to last through the end of the month.

    http://www.journalnow.com/news/crime...334643154.html
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    Maria Rodriguez died of strangulation the night before she was reported missing, medical examiner says

    By Michael Hewlett
    The Winston-Salem Journal

    One of the main issues in the first-degree murder trial of Juan Carlos Rodriguez – when Maria Magdalena Rodriguez died – took center stage Monday with the testimony of the Forsyth County medical examiner who did the autopsy.

    Prosecutors allege that Juan Rodriguez killed his wife on Nov. 18, 2010, the day before she was reported missing, but attorneys for Juan Rodriguez argue that Maria Rodriguez was killed just a few days before her body was found on Dec. 12, 2010. The time is critical because after Nov. 21, 2010, Juan Rodriguez was in the Forsyth County Jail on charges of kidnapping and assaulting his wife.

    If Juan Rodriguez is convicted of first-degree murder, he could face the death penalty.

    On Monday, Dr. Patrick Lantz, a Forsyth County medical examiner, testified in Forsyth Superior Court that Maria Rodriguez died on Nov. 18, 2010, based partly on information he received from the Winston-Salem Police Department.

    Lantz said that Maria Rodriguez died from manual strangulation and that her windpipe showed evidence of hemorrhaging, or bleeding. He also testified that Maria Rodriguez was decapitated after she had died.

    Maria Rodriguez was last reliably seen alive on Nov. 18, 2010, Lantz said. He said under cross-examination that police did not provide information about reported sightings of Maria Rodriguez after she went missing.

    Detective Stan Nieves of the Winston-Salem Police Department testified under cross-examination last week that those reported sightings were determined not to be credible.

    According to testimony from two of her three children, she and Juan Rodriguez were heard arguing behind closed doors in the master bedroom of her apartment at 1828 Trellis Lane near East 25 th Street. Estela, 16, and her younger brother, Carlos, who is 14, had testified that they saw father, blood covering his knuckles and clothes, carry their mother out of the apartment, place her in his car and drive away. They testified that their mother was bleeding and breathing heavily. They testified that Juan Rodriguez told them that he was taking their mother to the hospital after Maria Rodriguez had lunged at him during the argument, missed and hit her head on a dresser.

    Under cross-examination, Lantz said Maria Rodriguez showed early stages of decomposition and that he told a prosecutor in an e-mail that it was unlikely that Maria Rodriguez’s body had been where it was found at the end of Williamsburg Road for three weeks. Based solely on the level of decomposition, Lantz said, it would appear that her body had been at the spot for at least a week.

    Lantz said he also considered other factors, including information from the Winston-Salem Police Department, to determine that Maria Rodriguez died on Nov. 18, 2010.

    Robert Campbell, one of Juan Rodriguez’s attorneys, asked Lantz about weather data, particularly about the fact that temperatures ranged from mid-50s to low-70s in the days before Maria Rodriguez’s body was found. On Dec. 12, 2010, it was cold, according to testimony.

    Lantz said that Maria Rodriguez was found in a wooded area and that the ground would have been warmer, helping to delay decomposition.

    Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Martin said in court that the prosecution will likely rest its case today.

    http://www.journalnow.com/news/crime...7a43b2370.html

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    Defense attorney: Police failed to follow up on other possible suspects

    The lead detective in the murder investigation of Maria Magdalena Rodriguez failed to investigate other possible suspects and focused only on her husband, Juan Carlos Rodriguez, a defense attorney argued Friday in a hearing outside the presence of the jury.

    Juan Rodriguez, 38, is on trial for first-degree murder in the death of Maria Rodriguez, who was reported missing Nov. 19, 2010. Her decapitated body was found Dec. 12, 2010, in a wooded area at the end of Williamsburg Road in the Minorcas Creek area off Bethabara Park Road. Prosecutors allege that Juan Rodriguez strangled his wife to death and then decapitated her. Maria Rodriguez’s skull was found May 29, 2013, in the Belews Creek area. Juan Rodriguez could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder.

    The dispute at the hearing Friday centered on three text messages that were sent from Maria Rodriguez’s cellphone to a cellphone belonging to Zoila Rodriguez, one of Maria’s close friends, on Nov. 18, 2010.

    Those text messages misspelled Zoila’s first name and said that Maria Rodriguez was going to Spain to see her secret boyfriend.

    Robert Campbell, an attorney for Juan Rodriguez, argued Friday that Winston-Salem police Det. Stan Nieves failed to investigate whether Maria Rodriguez had a secret boyfriend.

    Campbell questioned Nieves on Friday about Facebook messages retrieved from Maria Rodriguez’s computer in which someone using her profile chatted with at least two different men. He also questioned Nieves about text messages that Maria Rodriguez exchanged with one of the men. Campbell also asked Nieves about a dispute between that man and Maria Rodriguez and Zoila Rodriguez.

    Campbell argued that those messages and Facebook chats indicated that Maria Rodriguez could have possibly been in a romantic relationship with one of the men.

    Nieves said that he reviewed the messages and Facebook chats and that he found no proof that the men had threatened Maria Rodriguez or that she was in a romantic relationship with one of the men. He also said that he talked to Maria Rodriguez’s closest friends about the text messages sent from Maria’s cell phone on Nov. 18, 2010, and they told Nieves that they knew nothing about Maria Rodriguez having a boyfriend.

    Nieves testified Friday that based on the evidence, he believed that Juan Rodriguez used Maria’s cell phone to send those text messages and that in the past, Juan Rodriguez had posed as Maria Rodriguez on social media to get certain information from her friends.

    Campbell told Judge Stuart Albright of Forsyth Superior Court that Nieves could have easily done some simple investigation to see whether Maria Rodriguez actually had a boyfriend. In opening statements, Kim Stevens, another of Juan Rodriguez’s attorneys, argued that the Winston-Salem Police Department failed to look at other possible suspects in the case.

    Albright said he would look over the evidence defense attorneys presented Friday and rule Monday morning.

    He also ruled Friday that Forsyth County prosecutors cannot introduce evidence to jurors that undermines the credibility of a defense witness who challenges a key part of the prosecution’s case in a murder trial.

    Dr. Thomas Bennett, a forensic pathologist from Montana, testified Wednesday that Maria Rodriguez’s cause of death was undetermined and that she was not killed on Nov. 18, 2010.

    His testimony directly contradicted that of Dr. Patrick Lantz, the Forsyth County medical examiner who did the autopsy on Maria Rodriguez. Lantz testified Monday in Forsyth Superior Court that Maria Rodriguez died of manual strangulation and that she was killed on Nov. 18, 2010.

    Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Martin, who was cross-examining Bennett this morning, tried to ask Bennett about allegations that he misused state property, and in a hearing outside the presence of the jury she also asked him about questions that had been raised on his work on autopsies in non-accidental child deaths while he worked in Iowa.

    Albright ruled that the evidence was irrelevant and largely represented personal disagreements Bennett had with other forensic pathologists.

    http://www.journalnow.com/news/crime...7a01f457c.html
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    Defendant accused of killing, decapitating wife will not take stand at trial

    Juan Carlos Rodriguez told a judge in Forsyth Superior Court this morning that he will not take the stand in his defense against allegations that he killed and decapitated his wife in 2010.

    Maria Magdalena Rodriguez was reported missing Nov. 19, 2010, and her body was found Dec. 12, 2010, in a wooded area at the end of Williamsburg Road in the Minorcas Creek area off Bethabara Park Road. Her skull was discovered May 29, 2013, in the Belews Creek area of Forsyth County.

    Juan Rodriguez, 38, is on trial for first-degree murder in connection with Maria Rodriguez’s death and could face the death penalty if convicted. He told Judge Stuart Albright through a Spanish interpreter that after consulting with his attorneys, Kim Stevens and Robert Campbell, he had decided he would not testify.

    Rodriguez isn’t required under the law to testify or present evidence.

    Stevens and Campbell have argued that Juan Rodriguez was in the Forsyth County Jail at the time his wife was killed. They argue that Maria Rodriguez was killed sometime after Dec. 1, 2010.

    Prosecutors allege that Juan Rodriguez killed his wife on Nov. 18, 2010, the day before she was reported missing. According to testimony, Juan Rodriguez and his wife got into an altercation in the master bedroom of her apartment at 1828 Trellis Lane. Two of her children testified that they heard their mother scream for help and that later they saw their mother lying on the floor, bleeding and breathing heavily. They said their father had blood on his knuckles and clothes and that he carried her out and placed her in the back seat of the car, saying that he was going to take her to the hospital.

    Juan Rodriguez told police after he was arrested Nov. 21, 2010, that he was en route to the hospital and was stopped at an intersection near the apartment when Maria Rodriguez told him she didn’t want to go to the hospital and got out. Juan Rodriguez told police that he looked for her but couldn’t find her.

    Two forensic pathologists testified last week, one for the prosecution and the other for the defense. Dr. Patrick Lantz, a Forsyth County medical examiner, testified last week that Maria Rodriguez died of manual strangulation and was killed on Nov. 18, 2010.

    But Dr. Thomas Bennett, a forensic pathologist from Montana, testified that the cause of death was undetermined and that Maria Rodriguez died three to seven days before her body was discovered.

    Ann H. Ross, a forensic anthropologist, testified that Maria Rodriguez’s body was in the early stages of decomposition and could not have been at the end of Williamsburg Road for 3½ weeks before her body was discovered.

    The defense will likely rest Tuesday morning. Closing arguments could start Tuesday or Wednesday.

    http://www.journalnow.com/news/local...a4bcf6878.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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

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