News

Rodriguez receives 10 years

By Wendy Joan Biddlecombe | Hernando Today
Published: December 18, 2012

BROOKSVILLE Rebecca Marie Rodriguez stood at the court podium last Thursday, swallowing tears and bouncing nervously. The 26-year-old whispered "sorry" to her family before Judge Daniel Merritt Jr. sentenced her to 10 years in prison.

Rodriguez is accused of luring a man to her Brooksville home under the pretense of sex, and orchestrating an attack on him in her bedroom with the help of her three cousins.

The victim met Rodriguez at a Brooksville gas station, and went to her house after exchanging text messages. Once inside, he was physically attacked, punched several times and hit with a baseball bat before being tied and blindfolded, thrown out a window and hidden in a shed.

The suspects later put the victim in the trunk of his Honda Accord, and drove him to Goldsmith Road and ordered him to walk away, still blindfolded. The victim later led law enforcement to Rodriguez's house and identified the four suspects.

Rodriguez pleaded no contest to charges of robbery, battery, kidnapping and aggravated battery with great bodily harm. Her plea deal agreed to a 10 year sentence—if convicted, Rodriguez could have been sentenced to life in prison.

Rodriguez's cousins, Jeremiah Rodriguez, 20; Joshua Ray Rodriguez, 23; and Brigdare "B.J." Lopez, 17, are charged with unarmed robbery, grand theft auto, kidnapping and battery. Lopez was charged as an adult. The cases against the three men are pending trial.

wbiddlecombe@hernandotoday.com (352) 544-5283