Slava Novorossiya

Slava Novorossiya

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

ROSENDO RODRIGUEZ III (MARCH 26, 1980 TO MARCH 27, 2018)


On this date, March 27, 2018, Rosendo Rodriguez III was executed by lethal injection in Texas. 



Rosendo Rodriguez III, 38, is scheduled to be executed in Texas after being found guilty of capital murder in the 2005 death of Summer Baldwin, 29, who was pregnant at the time


Rosendo Rodriguez III
Born
March 26, 1980
Died
March 27, 2018 (aged 38)
Cause of death
Other names
The Suitcase Killer

Criminal charge
Penalty
Death (May 14, 2008)
Details
Victims
Joanna Rogers, 16
Summer Baldwin, 29
Date
c. May 4, 2004 (Rogers)
c. September 12, 2005 (Baldwin)


Rosendo Rodriguez III (March 26, 1980 – March 27, 2018) was an American murderer sentenced to death and executed in Texas for the September 2005 rape and murder of 29-year-old Summer Baldwin in Lubbock, Texas.

Rodriguez, a Marine reservist with no prior criminal convictions, was in Lubbock for training at the time of the murder, and was also found to be responsible for the murder of 16-year-old Joanna Rogers in the same city the preceding May (the killings were linked by Rodriguez's modus operandi, as both victims were found stuffed into suitcases which were then thrown into the same Lubbock landfill). Rodriguez was executed at the Huntsville Unit on March 27, 2018.

Background

Rodriguez was born on March 26, 1980, in Wichita Falls, northern Texas. He allegedly faced abuse from his alcoholic and domineering father, Rosendo Rodriguez Jr. The younger Rodriguez attended Texas Tech University in Lubbock, and had worked as both an office clerk and as a fast food worker, as well as serving as a Marine reservist. 

Joanna Rogers (left) and Summer Baldwin (right)


Murders
Summer L. Baldwin
Born
August 27, 1976
Disappeared
September 11, 2005
Died
c. September 12, 2005 (aged 29)
Cause of death
Body discovered
September 13, 2005
Lubbock, Texas
Nationality
American








Joanna Rogers
Born
June 25, 1987
Died
c. May 4, 2004 (aged 16)
Cause of death
Body discovered
October 24, 2006
Lubbock, Texas
Resting place
City of Lubbock Cemetery
Nationality
American

On September 13, 2005, the body of Summer Lee Baldwin was found in a Lubbock landfill. She was found to have died of asphyxiation and to have suffered numerous beatings. Summer, a 29-year-old native of Washington state, was working as a sex worker in Lubbock when she disappeared two days earlier, and had also been serving as a witness in a federal counterfeiting case, bringing her murder to the attention of the FBI. Summer was also around 5 weeks pregnant when she was killed, which served as an aggravating factor at Rodriguez's 2008 trial. Rodriguez was linked to the killing via a UPC code on the suitcase, and he had been arrested by September 15. He was also identified on CCTV footage as having bought the suitcase from a nearby Walmart in the early hours of September 12. In October 2006, the remains of Joanna Kathryn Rogers were found in the same landfill as that of Summer Baldwin after an extensive search. Joanna had been missing since May 2004.

During his interrogation, Rodriguez claimed that he and Summer entered a hotel room on the night of September 11, had consensual sex through the early hours of September 12, and that Rodriguez strangled her on the initiative of his military training after she pulled a knife on him. He told a similar story regarding Rogers, who he claimed became violent after he refused to pay her for having sex with him.

Trial, appeals and execution

Rodriguez was initially offered a plea deal that involved him pleading guilty to the murders of both women, but he refused at the last minute. He was convicted of the capital murder of Summer, and he was sentenced to death by lethal injection on May 14, 2008. Rodriguez spent just shy of 10 years on death row, below both the national and Texan average. During his incarceration, he contributed to inmate blog Minutes before Six on matters of criminal justice and politics. 

Rodriguez's lawyer appealed the death sentence based on a potential Brady disclosure violation by District Attorney Matt Powell for failing to disclose information regarding activities of the medical examiner who performed one of the autopsies.
On October 30, 2017, an appeal by Rodriguez to the US Supreme Court was denied. He was executed as scheduled on March 27, 2018. He was pronounced dead at 6:46 pm.
In his final statement, Rodriguez called for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate the Lubbock County, Texas district attorney Matt Powell and medical examiner Sridhar Natarajan, saying they had been involved in multiple wrongful convictions. Rodriguez also called for a boycott of Texas businesses until capital punishment is stopped there.

Rosendo Rodriguez, 38, was executed on Tuesday night in Huntsville, Texas. In 2005, he strangled pregnant prostitute Summer Baldwin (right) then put her body in a suitcase and tossed it in a landfill. Prosecutors at his trial said she was still alive when she was placed in the bag 


OTHER LINKS:
Lubbock County Criminal District Attorney Matt Powell told The Texas Tribune on Monday that he found no joy in the execution but that Rodriguez was a man who deserved the ultimate punishment.
“Who sticks a human being in a suitcase and throws them out with the trash?” Powell questioned. “This was a guy that, left unchecked, was going to hurt somebody else again and was going to continue to terrorize women.”
Texas executes Lubbock “suitcase killer”
Rosendo Rodriguez was executed Tuesday for killing a Lubbock prostitute and tossing her body in a dumpster in a suitcase. His final appeals questioned the medical examiner's testimony that she was sexually assaulted before her death.



'She deserved to live' - Remembering Summer Baldwin, 13 years after her murder
Monday, March 26th 2018, 10:54 am PHT


Remembering murdered teen, 16-year-old Joanna Rogers
Monday, March 26th 2018, 10:25 am PHT
Tuesday, March 27th 2018, 12:49 am PHT
By Shaley Sanders, Anchor/Reporter



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