Rodriguez: Death penalty sought in July 2013 murder of Angela Bryant
March 23, 2016
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office will seek the death penalty against an Oxnard man awaiting trial for murder in the shooting death of a Santa Paula woman more than two years ago.
Andres Rene Rodriguez, now 31, is charged with murder in the July 2013 death of 33-year-old Angela Bryant at a friend’s residence on Ojai Road in Santa Paula.
Rodriguez is also charged with the attempted murder of a second victim and the kidnapping and robbery of a third victim in a three-day crime spree in Santa Paula.
Bryant, the mother of young children, was found July 17, 2013 with a single gunshot wound to the head in a home in the 600 block of Ojai Road. She died shortly later at Ventura County Medical Center.
Rodriguez, a longtime member of the Colonia Chiques gang, is accused of robbing Bryant, a man and another woman at gunpoint July 15, 2013. According to the investigation, later that day Rodriguez found his property was missing and he allegedly was led to believe that Bryant had been involved in a retaliatory theft.
Two days later, Rodriguez entered the Ojai Road home and opened fire on a man and Bryant who were attempting to hide in the bathroom; the man escaped through a window and was not wounded.
Rodriguez, who knew all three victims, fled to Mexico where he remained until being caught and deported back to the United States.
A pretrial conference in the murder case is set for June.
Rodriguez remains in jail and while he technically has bail listed at $3.1 million due to his status as a violent criminal and gang member he cannot be released.
Rodriguez was tried and convicted in a separate case involving the attempted murder of an Oxnard man riding a bicycle in an Oxnard Colonia neighborhood the month before the Santa Paula crime spree.
Last year Rodriguez was sentenced to 51 years in prison for that crime that left the bicyclist seriously injured.
The jury — which deliberated for a day-and-a-half — also upheld numerous special allegations in connection with the Oxnard shooting including committing street terrorism as well as Rodriguez’s prior convictions for violent felonies.
According to court records, Rodriguez has a criminal record in Ventura County dating to 2003 and has been convicted of carrying a weapon, possessing and being under the influence of a controlled substance, and resisting arrest.
In addition, at the time of his arrest for suspicion of the Bryant murder and the Oxnard attempted murder he had outstanding warrants on numerous charges, including owning or possessing a firearm as a felon, elder abuse and assault.
In 2004, Rodriguez spent time in state prison in Lancaster for robbery, false imprisonment and possession of a controlled substance, records show. He was paroled in 2007 but committed a new crime and returned to prison in 2009 for assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
In January 2012 he was released back to Ventura County, where he was under probation supervision.
According to Oxnard Police, Rodriguez was released under the Post Release Offender Program.
