Dale Derrick Rodriguez Jr. was facing a possible life sentence after bludgeoning a man to death with a metal pipe, but a jury Thursday found him guilty of assault instead of murder.
Rodriguez, 42, now faces up to 10 years in prison at sentencing in February for the Dec. 9 death of 33-year-old Jesse Waikiki. Deputy Prosecutor Scott Bell said he will ask the court to impose the maximum penalty for first-degree assault.
Jurors deliberated for just over a day before reaching the verdict.
Bell and defense lawyer Michael Green said they expected the jurors to deliberate for at least another day. Neither side had sought a verdict other than guilty or not guilty of murder, but the court gave jurors the option of considering lesser charges like manslaughter and assault.
Green said Rodriguez was shocked that he was found guilty of assault.
“I think they wanted to do justice, they wanted him to be punished for it. But I think they felt bad for the guy,” Green said.
Bell contends there is only one explanation for the verdict. “They thought that (Rodriguez’s) state of mind for striking Waikiki in the mouth, then stopping, was not to cause death, but to cause serious injury,” Bell said.
Rodriguez testified that he struck Waikiki twice in the mouth with a curved metal pipe to protect himself and his family after Waikiki struck his fiancee, Nisa Harada, with one punch that knocked her out. A witness testified that a bystander then knocked out Waikiki, who was lying flat on his back in the middle of Salt Lake Boulevard when Rodriguez delivered the fatal blows.
Harada testified that the two men had never met before the early morning of Dec. 9. She said she had kicked Rodriguez out of her Aliamanu home about a month before Waikiki was killed, but she had been pleading with him to return. She said Waikiki was in bed with her when Rodriguez showed up at the home to drop off some clothes.
Waikiki was on work-furlough release from Oahu Community Correction Center, and had been released on parole just five days earlier. He was serving a 15-year prison term for burglary, car break-in and car theft convictions.
