Jury Waits For Case In Coral Gables High Stabbing
MIAMI (CBS4) – After two weeks of testimony and being presented evidence, the jury in the trial of Coral Gables High student Andy Rodriguez is expected to decide on the case Tuesday.
But, closing arguments didn't finish without some more movement on the jury.
Judge Dava Tunis noted that one of the jurors slept during closing arguments and defense attorney's asked the judge for a replacement juror.
Judge Tunis agreed saying, "I would say she didn't hear the entire defense closing."
The trial surrounds Rodriguez, who has admitted to stabbing classmate Juan Carlos Rivera in 2009, but Rodriguez's defense team said the stabbing was not murder, but self-defense.
The state maintains Rodriguez killed Rivera in a jealous rage after his former girlfriend, Daimilsis Salgado, befriended him.
"It boils down to this, 'Did he act out of fear or did he act out of anger? That is the question for you," said assistant state attorney Marie Mato in her closing argument Monday morning.
At one point, Mato pulled out Rivera's bloodied shirt from an evidence bag and said, "That's what the defendant did to the victim out of anger and not out of fear, out of anger."
Rivera's mother wept as she saw her son's bloodied shirt.
Defense attorney Lane Abraham addressed the jury by mid-afternoon and said Rodriguez acted out of self-defense.
"Not every homicide is a criminal act. If it's justifiable, it's not a criminal act," Abraham said. "In this case, it's self-defense."
Rodriguez is charged with second-degree murder, but the jury will also be able to consider the lesser-included charge of manslaughter. For Rodriguez, the difference between the two charges would be big.
If Rodriguez is found guilty of murder, he faces up to life in prison, while manslaughter carries a sentence up to 15 years in prison.
Rodriguez's defense attorneys rested their case Friday after Judge Dava Tunis ruled the jury would not hear testimony of other students regarding Rivera's past bully-type behavior.
Judge Tunis said the proposed testimony was irrelevant because there's no evidence Rodriguez knew of it and it "does not go to his state of mind" at the time of the alleged crime.
On Thursday a forensic pathology expert boosted the defense's claim that Rodriguez acted in self defense.
Dr. John Marraccini, former Chief Medical Examiner for Palm Beach County, testified that forensic evidence and school security video from the incident supported Rodriguez's claim that he was acting in self-defense when he fatally stabbed Rivera in a school hallway.
Dr. Marraccini also testified that security video from after the stabbing showed Rivera continuing to be the aggressor, chasing Rodriguez into a school courtyard.
