Santa Cruz – District Attorney Bob Lee announced that defendant Raul Perez Rodriguez was sentenced today to life in prison for a gang-related attempted murder. The defendant was found guilty on April 29, 2013 by a jury on the charge and all special allegations. Rodriguez, currently aged 38, received the maximum possible sentence and will not be eligible for a parole hearing for nineteen years.
The charge stems from an October 23, 2011 attack on Bixby Street in Santa Cruz. The defendant, a Watsonville gang member, walked up to a parked car, shouted a gang slogan, and began stabbing the driver. The driver, who had no gang affiliations, was completely unprepared for the attack and was stabbed four times in the chest before he could fight back. He struggled with the defendant for control of the knife, and badly slashed his hand in the process. Fearing that he would be killed, the victim hit the gas on his parked car, sending it across the street where he crashed into a building. The defendant followed the victim’s car across the street, apparently intending to continue the attack. When neighbors came out to investigate the crash, the defendant shouted another gang slogan and fled the scene.
Rodriguez was identified from fingerprints left at the scene. He went into hiding after the attack, but was tracked down to a motel in Gilroy, California by the Santa Cruz Police Department and the Santa Cruz County Anti-Crime Team and arrested.
The defendant addressed the court at sentencing, saying the crime was “unfortunate” and claiming he committed the attack in a drunken stupor. “Unfortunate? He calls this unfortunate?” said prosecutor Charlie Baum. “What is unfortunate is that this defendant committed a lifetime of gang violence, and almost killed an innocent bystander in the name of his gang.” Baum pointed out the defendant’s numerous prior convictions, including a 1995 conviction for carjacking, another 1995 conviction for assault with a deadly weapon, and a 2006 conviction for a gang-related robbery. “This is the only fitting end for a career gangster,” he said.
Baum also thanked the members of the Santa Cruz Police Department and the Santa Cruz County Anti-Crime Team. “Without their efforts, this defendant might have gotten away. They worked very hard to track him down and bring him to justice, and the conviction wouldn’t have been possible without their diligence and creativity in finding him.”