Rosendo Rodriguez III was an American murderer sentenced to deathand executed in Texas for the September 2005 rape and murder of 29-year-old Summer Baldwin in Lubbock, Texas. Rodriguez, a Marine reservist with no prior criminal convictions, was in Lubbock for training at the time of the murder, and was also found to be responsible for the murder of 16-year-old Joanna Rogers in the same city the preceding May. Rodriguez was executed at the Huntsville Unit on March 27, 2018, the day after his 38th birthday.
Background
Rodriguez was born on March 26, 1980, in Wichita Falls, northern Texas. He allegedly faced abuse from his alcoholic and domineering father, Rosendo Rodriguez Jr. He attended Texas Tech University in Lubbock, and had worked as an office clerk and as a fast food worker, as well as serving as a Marine reservist.
Murders
On September 13, 2005, the body of Summer Lee Baldwin was found in a Lubbock landfill. She was found to have died of asphyxiation and to have suffered numerous beatings. Summer, a 29-year-old native of Washington state, was working as a sex worker in Lubbock when she disappeared two days earlier, and had also been serving as a witness in a federal counterfeiting case, bringing her murder to the attention of the FBI. Summer was also around 5 weeks pregnant when she was killed, which served as an aggravating factor at Rodriguez's 2008 trial. Rodriguez was linked to the killing via a UPC code on the suitcase, and he had been arrested by September 15. He was also identified on CCTV footage as having bought the suitcase from a nearby Walmart in the early hours of September 12. In October 2006, the remains of Joanna Kathryn Rogers were found in the same landfill as that of Summer Baldwin after an extensive search. Joanna had been missing since May 2004. During his interrogation, Rodriguez claimed that he and Summer entered a hotel room on the night of September 11, had consensual sex through the early hours of September 12, and that Rodriguez strangled her after she pulled a knife on him. He told a similar story regarding Rogers, who he claimed became violent after he refused to pay her for having sex with him.
Trial, appeals, and execution
Rodriguez was initially offered a plea deal that involved him pleading guilty to the murders of both women, but he refused at the last minute. He was convicted of the capital murder of Summer, and he was sentenced to death by lethal injection. During his incarceration, he contributed to inmate blog Minutes before Six on matters of criminal justice and politics. Rodriguez's lawyer appealed the sentence based on a potential Brady disclosure violation by District Attorney Matt Powell for failing to disclose information regarding activities of the medical examiner who performed one of the autopsies. On October 30, 2017, an appeal by Rodriguez to the US Supreme Court was denied. He was executed as scheduled on March 27, 2018. In his final statement he called for investigation of Powell and medical examiner Sridhar Natarajan, saying they had been involved in multiple wrongful convictions. He also called for a boycott of Texas businesses until capital punishment is ended there.
