Picture Credit: Twitter
Former professional boxer Felix Verdejo has been found guilty by a Puerto Rican jury of kidnapping and murdering 27-year-old Keishla Rodriguez on April 29, 2021. During the one month trial, the prosecution presented evidence which was sufficient for the three-women and nine-men jury to find Verdejo guilty of kidnapping and murder. However, the jury was not able to reach a unanimous verdict on a carjacking resulting in death and possession of a violent weapon charge.
The young woman disappeared on April 29, 2021. She was supposed to meet Verdejo to share news that she was expecting his child. The boxer, who denied any wrongdoing, was arrested by the FBI on May 2, 2021 and authorities claimed that Verdejo drugged Rodriguez before throwing her unconscious body off a bridge, into a river. Despite the defense presenting nine witnesses who testified that Verdejo was a non-violent and loving person, the jury still found him guilty of the two crimes of kidnapping and murder. This story sparked a wave of protests and online discourse around violence against women and femicide in Puerto Rico.
US Attorney Stephen Muldrow said, "We stand firmly with the family of Keishla Rodriguez Ortiz and all those in the community who sought justice for this senseless, cruel, and heinous act of premeditated and cold-blooded violence against Keishla and her unborn child.”
Rodriguez’s father Tony stated, “May he live the rest of his life thinking about what he did to my daughter.”
Accomplice’s testimony key in Jury decision
One of the most important pieces of the prosecution’s case was the testimony of Verdejo’s accomplice Luis Antonio Cadiz Martinez. Martinez recounted that the pair had planned to use wire to restrain Keishla and that they had acquired blocks of cement to weigh her limbs down when they drowned her. Shockingly, Martinez revealed that Verdejo was aware Rodriguez was pregnant with his child at the time of her murder.
This meant that the attack was both premeditated and done knowing it would end the life of an unborn child. The pair drugged Rodriguez in her car using a mix of fentanyl and xylazine, which are animal sedatives, before tying cement blocks to Rodriguez’s limbs and throwing her off Teodoro Moscoso Bridge.
Verdejo is due to be sentenced for his crimes in November, while accomplice Martinez’s case will go to trial in August. Verdejo faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.
