Post by Anja Nieser on Sept 24, 2006 4:45:43 GMT -5
Dru Sjodin's Killer Gets Death Penalty
Dru Was On Phone With Boyfriend When Abducted
FARGO, N.D. -- Jurors have sentenced convicted sex offender Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. to death for the killing of college student Dru Sjodin.
The decision was announced after jurors met for about an hour and a half Friday morning. Jurors began deliberations on Wednesday afternoon.
Rodriguez looked straight ahead and showed no emotion as the sentence was announced late Friday morning in federal court. His mother, Dolores, and sister, Ileanna Noyes cried, as did a number of the jurors.
Members of Sjodin's family looked somber and stared straight ahead. They shared hugs outside the courtroom.
The same federal jury convicted Rodriguez, 53, last month of kidnapping resulting in Sjodin's death.
The 22-year-old University of North Dakota student from Pequot Lakes, Minn., disappeared from a Grand Forks, N.D., shopping mall parking lot in November 2003.
Sjodin's boss told jurors that Dru finished her work shift at Victoria's Secret at the mall at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 22, 2003, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press. A store clerk at Marshal Fields said Sjodin bought a purse at 5 p.m. and walked back into the common mall area.
Sjodin's boyfriend Chris Lang testified that Dru had called him at 5 p.m. to talk about her new purse, the Pioneer Press reported. He then said that four minutes into the conversation, he heard Sjodin utter, "OK, OK," before the line went dead.
Lang said that at first, he just figured the call had been cut off. But he tried to call her several times and got no answer. Sjodin then did not show up for work, so her roommate called the police.
The police then found Sjodin's car in the mall parking lot that night, the Pioneer Press reported. Her wallet, drivers license, student identification, shopping bag and new purse were found in the car. But lying next to the car was a knife sheath, the paper reported.
Sjodin's body was found the following April in a ravine near Crookston, in northwestern Minnesota. Authorities said she was beaten, raped and stabbed. Her hands were tied behind her back and her throat was cut, The Pioneer Press reported.
Prosecutors had called for jurors to sentence Rodriguez to death. Defense attorneys had called for a sentence of life in prison, arguing that Rodriguez was sexually abused as a child and has brain damage from exposure to farm chemicals.
The defense said Rodriguez had been anxious about being released from prison after serving more than 20 years for assaults on three women in 1975 and 1980.
It's North Dakota's first death-penalty case in nearly 100 years.
North Dakota does not have the death penalty but it is allowed in federal cases.
Distributed by Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Dru Was On Phone With Boyfriend When Abducted
FARGO, N.D. -- Jurors have sentenced convicted sex offender Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. to death for the killing of college student Dru Sjodin.
The decision was announced after jurors met for about an hour and a half Friday morning. Jurors began deliberations on Wednesday afternoon.
Rodriguez looked straight ahead and showed no emotion as the sentence was announced late Friday morning in federal court. His mother, Dolores, and sister, Ileanna Noyes cried, as did a number of the jurors.
Members of Sjodin's family looked somber and stared straight ahead. They shared hugs outside the courtroom.
The same federal jury convicted Rodriguez, 53, last month of kidnapping resulting in Sjodin's death.
The 22-year-old University of North Dakota student from Pequot Lakes, Minn., disappeared from a Grand Forks, N.D., shopping mall parking lot in November 2003.
Sjodin's boss told jurors that Dru finished her work shift at Victoria's Secret at the mall at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 22, 2003, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press. A store clerk at Marshal Fields said Sjodin bought a purse at 5 p.m. and walked back into the common mall area.
Sjodin's boyfriend Chris Lang testified that Dru had called him at 5 p.m. to talk about her new purse, the Pioneer Press reported. He then said that four minutes into the conversation, he heard Sjodin utter, "OK, OK," before the line went dead.
Lang said that at first, he just figured the call had been cut off. But he tried to call her several times and got no answer. Sjodin then did not show up for work, so her roommate called the police.
The police then found Sjodin's car in the mall parking lot that night, the Pioneer Press reported. Her wallet, drivers license, student identification, shopping bag and new purse were found in the car. But lying next to the car was a knife sheath, the paper reported.
Sjodin's body was found the following April in a ravine near Crookston, in northwestern Minnesota. Authorities said she was beaten, raped and stabbed. Her hands were tied behind her back and her throat was cut, The Pioneer Press reported.
Prosecutors had called for jurors to sentence Rodriguez to death. Defense attorneys had called for a sentence of life in prison, arguing that Rodriguez was sexually abused as a child and has brain damage from exposure to farm chemicals.
The defense said Rodriguez had been anxious about being released from prison after serving more than 20 years for assaults on three women in 1975 and 1980.
It's North Dakota's first death-penalty case in nearly 100 years.
North Dakota does not have the death penalty but it is allowed in federal cases.
Distributed by Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc. The Associated Press contributed to this report.