New law brings big change to sentence for man convicted of killing Modesto teen girl
Jesus Manuel Rodriguez was 15 when he was the driver in a gang-related shooting at a Modesto park that killed 17-year-old Ernestina “Tina” DeJesus Tizoc.
Now 32, Rodriguez has been incarcerated for more than half his life, and was sentenced on a conviction of murder to serve decades more.
But with a recent California Supreme Court ruling upholding a 2018 law, he will soon be set free.
“It’s not justice, the new laws that came out, they should be paying for what they did,” Tizoc’s mother Manuela Ramirez said through a Spanish language interpreter on Monday.
In 2016, voters approved Proposition 57, which gave local judges, instead of prosecutors, the authority to determine if a juvenile, from age 14 to 17, should be tried as an adult. Senate Bill 1391 took the criminal justice reform a step further by barring any child under the age of 16 from being tried as an adult. Since the mid-90s, minors over the age of 13 could be tried as adults in California.
SB 1391 was partially retroactive, applying to minors whose cases had not been adjudicated or to those who had been convicted but were still pending appeal.
There were two defendants in Stanislaus County who fit the latter, Rodriguez and Turlock Diaz, who was 14 when he shot and carjacked a man in Riverbank in 2010.
After SB 1391 passed, Prosecutors around the state, including in Stanislaus County, petitioned for appeals on cases affected by the new law.
Prosecutors in Diaz’s case argued that SB 1391 was unconstitutional, because it was not consistent with the intent of Proposition 57.
Seven Court of Appeals panels upheld the law but one in Ventura County dissented. That case went to the California Supreme Court, which reversed the decision, saying SB 1391 is consistent with and furthers the purposes of proposition 57.
After the Supreme Court decision, the Diaz and Rodriguez cases were remanded to juvenile court, where judges are much more limited on the sentences they can impose.
Juvenile offenders sentenced to prison terms go to the state’s Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). It only houses offenders up to the age of 25 or, if the former minor is over the age of 25 when sentenced, for a two-year period of confinement.
Victim’s mom fearful of release
The only option for Rodriguez and Diaz, both over the age of 25, is to be released now or sentenced to two years. A two-year sentence would transfer them from an adult detention facility to DJJ, which has an emphasis on rehabilitation over punishment.
“Here I am, standing up as a warrior for my daughter,” Ramirez said in court before Rodriguez was sentenced. “I don’t feel that this is fair, for them to get out free to commit other crimes.”
She said she is fearful of Rodriguez’s impending release, for her safely and the safety of her surviving children.
“I would like for him to tell me why he did this,” Ramirez said. “That is the question that I keep asking myself over and over; why did they do that to her? Seventeen years living this agony trying to figure out why they did that to her. They didn’t know her and she didn’t know them.”
Tizoc was shot while attending a Police Athletic League program at Oregon Park in south Modesto in 2004. Prosecutors said a vehicle full of Sureño gang members were targeting Norteños in the park and that Tizoc, who was not in a gang, was wearing a maroon shirt, similar to the red color associated with the Norteño gang.
Deputy District Attorney Jon Appleby said, in addition to driving the Chevrolet Blazer from which the shots were fired, Rodriguez provided the .22 caliber rifle that was used.
Both Rodriquez and the shooter, Edgar Octavio Barajas, who was 16 at the time, were tried as adults, convicted and each sentenced to 50 years to life in prison. But the California Supreme Court overturned Barajas’ conviction in 2018 over a change in the law regarding accomplice testimony. Barajas could not be retried so he was released and deported.
For Rodriguez’s sentencing in juvenile court, the defense and prosecution presented witnesses on Friday who spoke about his time while incarcerated.
Rodriguez’s attorney Robert Winston argued that he has already made great rehabilitative strides.
He dropped out of the Sureño gang early on in his incarceration and while in Juvenile Hall earned his GED and began courses through Modesto Junior College.
After he was sentenced and sent to prison, Winston said Rodriguez went through a period of depression.
That is when he had multiple rule violations, including for fighting, destroying property, tattooing and testing positive for drugs, according to testimony from Stanislaus County probation officer Elizabeth Vigil.
But Winston said with SB 1391 came hope and a renewed focus on his education.
Rodriguez has enrolled in classes
Rodriguez again enrolled in community college courses, and when he was transferred to the Stanislaus County Jail in 2019 to await the Supreme Court’s decision on the legislation, he focused on his faith, Winston said.
That is how he met his wife, whom he married while in the Stanislaus County Jail. His wife is deaf, and he has been learning American Sign Language with hopes of teaching it to others through their church, according to testimony.
Appleby said while Rodriguez has benefited from educational opportunities, he has not received mental health counseling to help him reconcile his involvement in Tizoc’s murder. He said this, as well as a program for reentry into society, would benefit him.
Juvenile Court Judge Rubén Villalobos agreed and sentenced Rodriguez to the two-year period of confinement.
“The court finds both that this man has extreme rehabilitative potential and also that he has extreme rehabilitative needs,” Villalobos said.
He said he considered all reasonable alternatives, including releasing Rodriguez immediately.
Villalobos said he considered that Rodriguez could continue his education, proceed with plans with his wife for a faith-based sign language program and, on his own, come to terms with life as a former gang member.
“The court has considered that he could find ways to accept how his behavior ... deprived a mother of a daughter,” the judge said. “The court finds that while all of those could happen, they go directly to the former minor’s rehabilitative need, which is as of yet unfulfilled.”
A sentencing hearing for Diaz is scheduled for Thursday.
This story was originally published June 10, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
