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Man gets 50 years for driving into crowd
Published July 3, 2009
ANGLETON — Being beaten by a group of people was not enough to justify a man plowing his truck into them afterward, a jury decided Thursday before sentencing him to 50 years in prison on a murder conviction.
The jury of six men and six women deliberated for more than an hour before sentencing Salvador Rodriguez, 60. The jury found him guilty of murdering Sergio Mendoza-Villa earlier Thursday morning.
Rodriguez faced up to life in prison. If the jury had decided Rodriguez acted in a sudden passion, it would have reduced the possible maximum sentence to 20 years in prison.
Prosecutors said Rodriguez ran his truck into a group of people the night of March 8, 2008, killing Mendoza-Villa and injuring four others, at a trailer park in the 3900 block of CR 48.
Some who were injured that night testified there was no fight before the incident, while other witnesses testified they saw a group of people beating a man before the collision.
Salvador did maintenance work at the trailer park north of Iowa Colony.
The jury was allowed to consider whether Rodriguez, who had been drinking that night, committed the act in a sudden passion but concluded he did not.
“It was a head-scratcher and there was tragedy on both sides,” juror Jose Gonzalez said. “The decisions men make, they have to face the consequences.”
Rodriguez’s family members cried after the judge read the sentence. Rodriguez himself showed no reaction.
Outside the courtroom, Rodriguez’s daughter, Erika Cuellar, said her father was trying to get away from the group when he hit the crowd that night.
“We stand by our dad,” she said. “We believe he’s innocent.”
Because of the incident and the jury’s sentence, Rodriguez’s 10-year-old son has lost his father, Cuellar said.
“All because men didn’t man up and admit they beat him,” she said.
Rodriguez could have left that night but made a conscious decision to run his truck into the group of people, prosecutor Jessica Pulcher said.
“He wasn’t responding to sudden passion,” Pulcher said. “He was responding to his anger.”
The jury’s sentence was appropriate and it sends a message to Brazoria County residents that they can’t take the law into their own hands, Pulcher said.
During closing arguments Thursday morning, prosecutor Jennifer Dunne pointed out that Rodriguez drove his truck into the crowd, backed up and did it again. Those weren’t the actions of someone fleeing danger, she said.
She also questioned whether Rodriguez was in the fight the defense argued led to the incident.
His motive was, “possibly revenge, but not self-defense,” Dunne said.
“Once he gets in his truck, he can drive away,” she said. “He drove through those people and four people went to the hospital. One person went to the morgue.”
Rodriguez’s attorney, Michael Garza, said his client became angry that night after he was beaten, and that fits the description of sudden passion.
“I respect the jury’s verdict, but I don’t necessarily agree with it,” Garza said. “I would have expected a lesser sentence.”
A group of men “half his age” drug Rodriguez from his pickup and beat him so severely, a patch of scalp and hair were left on pavement outside the trailer where the crash took place, Garza said during his closing arguments. Rodriguez lost his glasses during the fight.
Garza described Rodriguez’s assailants as, “a bunch of guys who were drinking beer that night … who drug my client out of his truck and beat him down, then claimed they weren’t doing anything.”
Gonzalez said the jury had to weigh Rodriguez’s future against Brazoria County residents’ future safety in deciding the sentence.
“Hopefully, young people will see that when you use alcohol, bad things happen,” Gonzalez said. “With alcohol, you lose your senses. In his right mind, he may not have done that.”
Facts reporter John Lowman contributed to this report.
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