Seated alone and handcuffed in a jury box while listening to the wife of the man he killed condemn him, Omar Rodriguez stood in his orange jumpsuit, removed the mask covering his mouth and exploded in rage.
“A coward was your husband. That’s why I killed him,” he yelled.
Even after seven corrections officers dragged him from the courtroom and placed him in a holding cell behind a closed courtroom door Thursday, Rodriguez’s barrage of obscenities bellowed over the woman’s voice.
Lissette Rey gathered her thoughts, then continued.
“I pray he spends the rest of his pitiful existence in prison,” she told the judge. “He’s a narcissistic piece of s—.”
In May, a jury found Omar Rodriguez guilty of second-degree murder for the shooting death of his son’s neighbor, Jose Rey, 52. Rodriguez, who made a mockery of being just out-of-the-reach of police and who terrorized his neighbors for decades, argued Rey deserved it because his dog pooped on the lawn of the Kendall home of Rodriguez’s son.
On Thursday, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Milton Hirsch sentenced Rodriguez to a life in prison with a minimum of 25 years. In effect, the 75-year-old will spend the remainder of his life behind bars.
With the possibility of capital punishment removed earlier by jurors, the life sentence was fine with Rey’s family and friends. Before the sentencing, Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Kimberly Rivera played the court a recording in which Rodriguez said he felt no remorse.
“If I had to do it all over again, I’d do it the same way,” he said.
“He’s one of the most dangerous felons I’ve ever prosecuted,” Rivera told the judge. “He needs to be gone for the rest of his life.”
Even so, defense attorney Bruce Lehr told the court of Rodriguez’s upbringing — before something went terribly wrong.
Rodriguez played basketball at Miami Edison High and was offered a scholarship at the University of Florida, where he graduated from in 1973. He received a graduate degree in psychology from St. Thomas University and a graduate degree from Drake University in Iowa. He taught math in Little Havana, has been married for 48 years, has a son and four grandchildren.
“I ask you to look at the 66 years of his life when he was not only a productive member of society, but a good one,” Lehr told the judge.
Finally went too far
Though Rodriguez is alleged to have spent decades terrorizing neighbors from Coral Gables to the western suburbs of Kendall, he finally went too far in June 2015. That’s when he followed the Reys in a car, parked in the median, got out and confronted the couple about the dog they were walking.
Jose Rey took the dog home and he and his wife continued their walk. When they reached Rodriguez, he was shirtless and ready for a fight. He shot Jose Rey three times. When Lissette Rey tried to comfort her husband, Rodriguez threatened her, too.
A Miami Herald investigation into Rodriguez’s reign of terror found that neighbors had filed more than 140 complaints against him in the seven years before he killed Rey. But each time, police said the complaints fell just short of criminal. His documented clashes with neighbors began in the early 1990s.
One incensed neighbor wrote to then-Gov. Lawton Chiles, saying Rodriguez had guns, declared “war” on neighbors, screamed in the street and once threatened a lawn worker with a machete. He pleaded guilty to battery on a police officer in 1994 and got probation.
Neighbors attend sentencing
After Thursday’s sentencing, Sergio and Lourdes Garcia, who said they were neighbors of Rodriguez, shared their thoughts.
“This guy has been treating neighborhoods and everything else so badly, he got what he deserved,” Sergio Garcia said.
When his wife was asked if she was stunned by Rodriguez’s outburst in court, she didn’t hesitate.
“That’s exactly who he is,” she said.
Lissette Rey didn’t hold back.
“I wish that the death sentence would have been on the table,” she said. “At least he’ll be behind bars and can’t hurt anyone else.”
