A man accused of a series of shootings, the place he fired a BB gun at passing automobiles on roads and freeways in Southern California final 12 months, was sentenced to 10 years in state prison Monday after pleading responsible to three felony fees.
Jesse Leal Rodriguez, 35, of Anaheim accepted the Riverside County district legal professional’s workplace plea settlement, admitting to three counts of assault with a lethal weapon. At one level, he was going through three fees of tried homicide and was suspected in no less than six related shootings alongside Southern California freeways and roads.
Law enforcement officers noticed a series of shootings alongside freeways and roads for a couple of month in 2021, with drivers having their home windows shattered or automobiles broken whereas on the highway, particularly alongside the 91 Freeway.
The incidents led to a large investigation by the California Highway Patrol after a series of car-to-car shootings in Riverside and Orange counties, finally main to the arrest of Rodriguez in May 2021.
The three counts have been filed for three separate shootings, together with a May 25, 2021, incident the place Rodriguez‘s maroon Chevrolet Trailblazer was caught on the rearview camera of a Tesla.
The rear window of the Tesla was shattered near Hamner Avenue and Hidden Valley Parkway in Norco, prosecutors said, and Rodriguez’s automobile was seen in the video with the driving force’s facet window rolled down.
The Trailblazer was additionally linked to a second incident that very same day alongside the 91 Freeway close to Tyler Avenue in Riverside, the place a sufferer noticed the automobile taking pictures at her automobile from behind as she was altering lanes.
In a 3rd incident, Rodriguez pleaded responsible to a taking pictures on the 91 Freeway close to Magnolia Avenue. The sufferer in that incident reported listening to a pop and her rear window shattering. Just after the window shattered, she reported seeing a darkish SUV passing her on the correct.
Rodriguez was pulled over about half-hour after the incident in a shopping mall. Authorities discovered a BB gun and BBs.
Rodriguez had beforehand claimed he was not concerned in the freeway shootings after he was arrested, telling the Southern California News Group in a jailhouse interview final 12 months that authorities have been “trying to get me to confess to things I didn’t do” and that he was “no marksman.”
Rodriguez as an alternative claimed he had taken the weapons that have been discovered in his automobile from his stepson.