Modesto man raped teenage girl in Ceres. He’s been found suitable for parole.
A 57-year-old Modesto man who raped a teenage girl at knifepoint 20 years ago in Ceres has been found suitable for parole.
Jose Rodriguez was sentenced to serve 15 years to life in prison for sexually assaulting the 17-year-old girl after offering her a ride.
At a Dec. 5 hearing at Avenal State Prison in Kings County, a state parole panel determined Rodriguez was suitable for release from prison, the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office announced in a news release Monday.
On Tuesday, Rodriguez remained incarcerated at the prison on Avenal. It’s unclear when or if he will be released.
State parole officials have 120 days to review the decision. Then, the Governor’s Office will review Rodriguez’s case and determine whether to uphold, overturn or modify the state parole board’s decision.
Rodriguez was convicted of rape, sodomy, penetration with a foreign object and oral copulation. Prosecutors said in the news release that Rodriguez used a knife to maintain control of the girl as he committed the violent sex crimes.
The sexual assault occurred in July 1998. At the time, Ceres police officials said the girl accepted the ride from Rodriguez. He was working as a roofer and was driving a pickup. Rodriguez was supposed to drive the girl to a minimart on Fourth Street in Ceres.
A police detective told The Modesto Bee that Rodriguez drove to the 1800 block of Central Avenue in Ceres, stopped his pickup and brandished a hunting-type knife, before he raped and performed other sexual acts on the teenager. Rodriguez told the girl not to call police and threatened to return, the detective said.
The girl went to a friends’ house nearby, before going to a local hospital for examination. She gave police descriptions of the suspect and his pickup.
Police spotted a pickup matching the description at a construction site in Ceres, where Rodriguez worked. Investigators took the girl to the site, and she identified the suspect and his pickup, according to police.
Deputy District Attorney Michael Houston attended last week’s parole hearing. The prosecutor argued that Rodriguez should not be released from prison, because he failed to complete a self-help program for his sex addiction and still posed an unreasonable risk of danger.
Houston told the parole panel that Rodriguez’s answers appeared contrived and disingenuous, and an apology letter Rodriguez wrote to the victim seemed to be in response to what someone else had told him to say.
The parole panel indicated that Rodriguez has not violated any major prison rules involving violence, he showed genuine remorse and accepted full responsibility for the sexual assault, according to prosecutors.
Rodriguez had been denied parole in August 2017, March 2016, August 2014 and January 2013, according to prison records.
This story was originally published December 11, 2018 at 12:20 PM.