Jury recommends death penalty in bludgeoning death case
| Monday, Dec 07 2009 01:32 PM
Last Updated Monday, Dec 07 2009 01:42 PM
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Timothy Rodriguez was sentenced to death for his conviction of murdering 90-year-old Thelma Long. This photo was taken in Kern County Superior Court in December.
A jury recommended Monday that 41-year-old Timothy Titus Rodriguez be put to death for the brutal, baseball bat bludgeoning death of a 90-year-old woman and the near death of the woman's 60-year-old daughter.
"I can't imagine a more horrific crime committed by a person with a more horrific criminal history," prosecutor Art Norris said after the jury returned its verdict. "This is absolutely a correct verdict."
The defendant was convicted last month of first-degree murder, attempted murder, robbery, burglary and cutting a phone line in the the May 2, 2007 killing of Thelma Long and the near killing of her daughter, Cathryn Reeves, at Long's home in the 3100 block of Bucknell Street near Bakersfield College.
Rodriguez has spent most of his adult life in custody for convictions of assault with a firearm, possession of a firearm and two burglaries, Norris said.
Still, the prosecutor said, even if Adolph Hitler is a defendant, it's a very difficult decision for jurors to recommend death. He commended jurors for their diligence.
If a judge confirms the recommendation at a hearing now scheduled for Jan. 6, Rodriguez will be the first person in Kern County to receive the death penalty since September 2007. That's when a judge confirmed the death sentence for former school vice principal Vincent Brothers, 47, for convictions of killing his mother-in-law, wife and three small children. Rodriguez would be the 28th person to be sentenced to death in Kern County since 1978.
Rodriguez showed no reaction to the verdict from a panel of four men and eight women who have heard the evidence in his trial and penalty phase hearing during the last three months.
His defense attorneys, Jim Coker and Nelson Castro, declined to comment, but Castro had argued in the penalty phase that abuse suffered by Rodriguez as he grew up and possible mental issues should be considered for sparing him from the death penalty.
The defense also argued Rodriguez may have been under the influence of methamphetamine during the killings, and therefore not able to understand what he was doing.
But a police investigator testified Rodriguez showed no symptoms of drug intoxication when he interviewed him several hours after the attack, Norris said.
Reeves was knocked unconscious after being struck twice with a baseball bat, but she awoke a short time later to find Rodriguez gone and hear her mother's dying breaths.
"It was a miracle or by the grace of God that Reeves was not killed," Norris said. Reeves identified Rodriguez as the killer.
The motive for the crime was greed and Rodriguez went away from the bloody crime scene to chow down a double cheeseburger at McDonald's, the prosecutor said.
Long had hired Rodriguez and his girlfriend, Chenoa Martinez, then 26, to perform odd jobs around the house. Reeves expressed doubts about the heavily tattooed Rodriguez, but Long told her that she believed Rodriguez had turned his life around.
Norris described Rodriguez as "a silver-tongued devil" who could manipulate people. "Thelma Long paid with her life for being a trusting person," he said.
Norris described the prosecution evidence:
On the day of the attack, Rodriguez, Martinez and her two children went to McDonald's where Rodriguez pulled out a $10 bill to pay for a meal. Martinez questioned whether Long had paid Rodriguez enough money. He said he would go back and check.
Sometime before Rodriguez walked through the front door with a metal baseball bat, he had cut the phone lines to the house.
He hit Reeves first and then Long. Reeves has since died from unrelated health issues. Rodriguez stole Reeves' purse and jewelry.
Rodriguez went back to McDonald's and pulled out a $100 bill. When his girlfriend asked where he got that, he admitted robbing the victims.
Martinez said the victims would know who did it. Rodriguez said no one would be calling the police.
Reeves identified Rodriguez as the killer and police later found a tanktop Rodriguez wore that day with a small spot of Long's blood on it. The baseball bat that Rodriguez left in the house also had the defendant's DNA on it.
Rodriguez and Martinez were found a short time later at an Econo Lodge on Oak Street.
Accessory charges against Martinez were dropped in 2007, but she pleaded no contest to a forgery charge for writing checks in Long's name. Martinez was sentenced to two years.
The trial for Rodriguez was conducted before Judge Kenneth Twisselman.
