PUERTO RICO – The United States Department of Justice revealed this Monday that it will not seek the death penalty in the case against former boxer Félix Verdejo and his accomplice Luis Antonio Cádiz, who are accused of the death of the young Keishla Rodríguez and their unborn baby
Verdejo Sánchez and Cádiz Martínez face a charge of auto theft resulting in death; one count of kidnapping resulting in death and one count of killing an unborn child, known as the “2004 Unborn Victims of Violence Act,” according to the indictment.
Verdejo also faces a charge of using and carrying a firearm during and in connection with a crime of violence. The federal indictment includes relevant factors that made the case eligible for the death penalty.
Upon learning of the determination of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, Keishla’s sister, Bereliz Nichole Rodríguez, manifested herself on her social networks by posting a photo of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Guaynabo, where Verdejo is, and wrote in a message: “I love you alive”.
The boxer turned himself in to the federal authorities on May 2, 2004, but it was not until May 6 that a grand jury issued an indictment against Verdejo Sánchez and Cádiz Martínez for acts that led to Keishla’s murder.
The complaint states that Cádiz Martínez cooperated with authorities and revealed that on April 27 Verdejo Sánchez “contacted the witness and asked him for help to end the victim’s pregnancy, who told him to the boxer that she was pregnant with his child based on the res result of the test”.
Then, the 29 April, Verdejo Sánchez contacted the victim, Keishla, and “arranged to meet near her residence. Verdejo and the witness drove to the meeting in the black Dodge Durango bus,” states the federal complaint.
The victim arrived at the meeting in his vehicle, which was a gray Kia Forte, and got into in the boxer’s vehicle.
“After the conversation between Verdejo and the victim in Verdejo’s vehicle, he hit the victim in the face and injected him with a syringe filled with substances purchased at a point of drugs in (the Llorens Torres residence)”, reads the affidavit.
Furthermore, it was revealed that Verdejo Sánchez and the witness drove the two vehicles towards the Teodoro Moscoso bridge.
There, adds the indictment, “the victim was removed vehicle and thrown over one side of the bridge into the water. Verdejo shot the victim with a pistol from the bridge.”
The indictment specifies that on 30 April, the Police found Rodríguez Ortiz’s vehicle in Canovanas. Meanwhile, police investigators interviewed the victim’s family, who detailed information about his phone, which the FBI used to obtain records and its location.
Keishla’s body was found on Sunday, May 2, floating in Laguna San José. That same day it came to light that the security cameras captured a black Dodge Durango bus stopped on the bridge. The vehicle was seized by the Police and inspected by experts from the Forensic Science Bureau.
What did the autopsy reveal Keishla Rodríguez?
The autopsy performed by the pathologist Rosa Rodríguez at the Institute of Forensic Sciences on the body of Keishla, aged and who was one month pregnant , revealed that his death was due to suffocation by immersion.
The toxicological examination detected traces of fentanyl and heroin in his blood, while the body had fractures on the face, including the jaw.
These revelations are compatible with the information offered by the witness, with knowledge of what happened.
Keishla’s body, which was tied with cables and had blocks, was thrown from the Teodoro Moscoso Bridge into the San José lagoon, after the drug was injected. The findings of the investigation suggest that he was still alive.
You may be interested in:
The evidence in the murder case of Keishla Rodríguez in Puerto Rico that could complicate the life of Félix Verdejo