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Rodriguez sentenced to death DRU SJODIN CASE By DAVE KOLPACK Associated Press Writer FARGO, N.D. Jurors on Friday sentenced convicted sex offender Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. to death for kidnapping and killing University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin, whose body was found in a Minnesota ravine nearly five months after she disappeared.
It was North Dakotas first death penalty case in nearly a century. Court officials say the states last execution was in 1905 and the last person sentenced to death was spared in 1915. The state no longer has the death penalty but it is allowed in federal cases.
We hope the need does not arise for another 100 years, U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley said. The defendants acts of the last three decades have brought us to this place at this time, he said, referring to Rodriguezs earlier convictions for assaults on women going back to 1975.
Rodriguez, 53, of Crookston, looked straight ahead and showed no emotion as the sentence was announced. His attorney, Richard Ney, said he will first file a motion for a new trial and if that is denied, he will appeal.
"Life is worthy of being saved, no matter who it is," Ney said.
"Devastated is the only word we can use," he said of the Rodriguez family's reaction. "They're asking for their privacy at this point from everyone. We appreciate that."
Rodriguez's mother, Dolores, and sister, Ileanna Noyes, cried as the verdict was announced, as did a number of the jurors.
"I know it wasn't an easy decision for the jurors," Sjodin's mother, Linda Walker, said afterward, her voice shaking. "But Dru's voice was heard today."
The jury reached its decision after more than a day and a half of deliberations.
The same federal jury convicted Rodriguez on Aug. 30 on a charge of kidnapping resulting in Sjodin's death.
Sjodin, 22, of Pequot Lakes, disappeared from a Grand Forks shopping mall parking lot on Nov. 22, 2003, and her body was found the following April in a ravine near Crookston. Authorities said she was beaten, raped and stabbed.
Her disappearance brought national attention and months of searches by UND students, National Guard members from Minnesota and North Dakota and others.
It also led to tougher sex offender laws in the two states.
Rodriguez, who got out of prison about six months before the killing, was charged under federal law because Sjodin was taken across state lines.
Walker and Allan Sjodin, Dru's father, said they could have accepted a sentence of life in prison.
"Whatever would have happened, we would have been equally satisfied," Allan Sjodin said. "For Dru's sake, this needed to happen."
Sjodin's boyfriend, Chris Lang, said jurors made the right decision for Dru. "She got the verdict that she deserved," he said.
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