A man from Fairview died in 2019 because of Dylan Rodriguez’s acts. Rodriguez also said sorry to the court and prosecutors for lying while he was on the stand.
Rodriguez was given 13 years in prison for aggravated killing and an extra five years for lying in court. He pleaded guilty in late February.
David Duque-Soto, a 23-year-old from Fairview, was found shot and dead in June 2019 after a failed drug deal turned into a robbery. Gunpowder from 9 mm and.32-caliber guns was found close to his body, and he had obvious signs of being hit hard.
Rodriguez was first charged with having weapons, but later he was charged with felony murder and perjury because the state said he lied during the hearing of Lexie Burke. It was proven that he provided one of the guns used in the theft.
Rodriguez said sorry to Duque-Soto’s family for the “pain and suffering” he had caused before he was punished.
“I deeply regret my actions, and I often feel the weight of guilt on my shoulders, pulling me down,” he said.
He also told the assistant prosecutors, Matt Fitzpatrick and Suzanne Cevasco, and the judge in Burke’s case, Margaret Foti, that he was sorry for lying about this during his evidence.
Rodriguez said he didn’t want to be a criminal who went to and from jail a lot. He said he wanted to be a good person. Rodriguez has been in trouble with the law since he was a child.
Alyssa Rodriguez told the judge that her son got involved with the wrong people in high school. She also said that her son was smart, funny, and interested as a child. She told him that she was sure her son would do better and would be there for him when he got out of jail.
Rodriguez, his mother, and his lawyer, Nathan Kittner, asked for a shorter 10-year sentence for the aggravated manslaughter charge and for the five-year sentence for lying to run along with the aggravated manslaughter charge. Judge James Sattely did not agree.
Duque-Soto’s mother and sister were at the punishment. His mother cried as she spoke through a translator about how the crime affected her. Rodriguez said sorry, and his mother begged him not to, but she was not forgiven in her statement.
His mother said Rodriguez was a “terrible man” and “the same as the other rats in jail.”
“They killed my son for a silly $1,000,” she sobbed.
When Sattely gave Rodriguez his sentence, he said he hoped the young man would use the tools in prison to change his life while he was there.
Rodriguez is the fourth of five people charged with killing Duque-Soto to be given a sentence. Burke planned the failed heist and will likely be sentenced in the next few weeks. He admitted to killing someone badly in April 2022.
The state said that Raul Torres and Carlos Burgos shot Duque-Soto just minutes after they got into his Fairview apartment on Fourth Street. It was in March 2023 that Torres and Burgos admitted to aggravated manslaughter. In May 2023, they were given 30 years in jail.
After being found guilty of felony murder in March 2023, Getaway driver David Martinez was given a 30-year sentence on May 1, 2023. He was also found guilty of armed robbery, plot to commit armed robbery, unlawful possession of a weapon, and unlawful possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.
