Earlier this year, a Supreme Court judge ordered Jesse Leal Rodriguez to undergo trial in association with three shootings, which shattered Norco and Riverside car windows last year. The order follows testimony from an investigator that Rodriguez accepted responsibility for the crimes that resembled around 100 attacks in the first quarter of 2021 throughout SoCal.
Christina Guillen, the Riverside County DA’s Senior Investigator, testified that the 35-year-old man told her that it would be a cool thing to escape unpunished for the shootings. Somebody had apparently evaded arrest for a spree of shootings that terrorized vehicle drivers and destroyed many automobiles in Riverside and along State Route 91 in Los Angeles County and Orange County.
Nevertheless, as per Guillen’s testimony in the recent preliminary hearing, Rodriguez stated that he did the shootings to go to jail. He wanted to go to jail as he felt that he could get through his painful parting from his partner more easily there.
Further, there has not been any arrest or serious injury announced in association with the other gun shootings. As for Guillen, Rodriguez accepted responsibility for some of those shootings but not for all those incidents. He described the events with the word copycat, which basically means that Rodriguez would perform what he watched on past TV news.
The man faces three separate charges of assault that could cause considerable bodily injury, assault through a fatal weapon, and attempted murder. He is expected to be brought before the court to respond to the charges in May this year. Lawyers stated that they have sought a prolonged break in this case to potentially arrive at a plea deal for Rodriguez.
Defense lawyer Roger Chien looked to get the counts dismissed over lack of proof on many fronts. Chien argued in an earlier hearing that investigators kept questioning Rodriguez illegally after the man wanted to talk to his lawyer. As per a recent court filing, a polygraph resulted in the man making a confession after the investigator detected deception. Chien described that polygraph as an act of continuing the unlawful law enforcement interrogation. As per the response of the District Attorney to the motion, the man agreed to converse even after he invoked his so-called Miranda rights.
Chien also argued that the shooting incident out of his car windows amounted to no attempted murder. If Rodriguez was the man with the fired gun, he would have aimed for back windows at a distance from any motorists. As per California High Patrol’s Officer Jerry Martin’s testimony, a BB gunshot out of a distance could not kill any person. Chien unsuccessfully tried to bring up that testimony. The judge upheld an objection from the prosecution for technical reasons.
Disagreeing with attorney Chien’s hypothesis, Deputy DA Phillip Joo noted that the gunshots were fired from the exact same level where an individual would sit in their car. Joo argued that it is different from a case of throwing stones at a car parked somewhere.
The judge hardly paused after those lawyers finished their arguments and then ordered the man be subject to trial. The man is spending time at the correctional facility named after author Larry Smith instead of paying bail worth $1 million.
As per a recent testimony from Lynn Peters, a CHP officer, a vehicle driver identified a Chevrolet TrailBlazer with a pale maroon color without a license plate around her car as someone shot a window on State Route 91 adjacent to Tyler Street. Later, as per Deputy Sheriff Andrew Lucifora’s testimony, a motorist with some passengers at Interstate 15 in Norco filmed a similar sports-utility vehicle in the location when his rear window was blown out through gunfire.
Police arrested Rodriguez in a parking lot of a McDonald’s location around Tyler Street after many motorists said that somebody in a comparable sports-utility vehicle damaged their windows through gunshots. As per California Highway Patrol Investigator Daniel Perez’s testimony, he discovered a .177 Colt Defender air pistol in the man’s Trailblazer, besides many packets with 10 BB guns each.
As for Guillen’s testimony, Rodriguez first said to her that he took the so-called BB gun from his own son. Rodriguez would repeat that assertion days afterwards in a recent interview with an SCNG (Southern California News Group) staffer. However, Rodriguez later told law enforcement that he purchased the gun for $60, as per Guillen. Rodriguez was also convicted of a firearms violation in 2012, as per court records.
