Boyfriend Convicted Of Murder In Killing Of 17-Year-Old LA County Cheerleader

POMONA, CA — A young man who was in an on-again, off-again relationship with a 17-year-old Azusa High School cheerleader was convicted Tuesday of first-degree murder for stabbing her to death after a fight nearly two years ago.

Jurors deliberated about two hours before finding Daniel Rodriguez guilty in connection with the Dec. 20, 2024, killing of Angelina "Angel" Gonzales, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

Along with the murder charge, jurors found true an allegation that he used a knife during the commission of the crime.

Rodriguez — who was 18 at the time and is now 20 — is due back in a Pomona courtroom for sentencing Dec. 8. He is facing a maximum of 26 years to life in state prison, according to the District Attorney's Office.

Deputy District Attorney Brittany Saleeby said in her opening statement last Thursday that she would ask the Pomona jury to convict Rodriguez of murder, while defense attorney Gary Meastas countered that his client had acted impulsively.

The prosecutor told jurors that Rodriguez picked up the teen after a cheerleading banquet five days before Christmas, took her to his house in Azusa and became upset after she accused him of cheating when she saw scratches on him and asked to see his phone.

The prosecutor said the defendant tried to hug the girl, punched her twice in the face before she left the home, armed himself with a knife from the kitchen, followed her outside and stabbed her.

"When he stabbed her, he had another choice — to help her — because he heard her saying, `Help me! Help me!"' Saleeby told the panel, noting that Rodriguez instead chose to get the keys to his mother's Hyundai Sonata and flee from the scene instead of helping the victim.

The prosecutor said the case was not a "whodunit" because the defendant acknowledged he did it, telling jurors they would have to decide if the killing is murder or something lesser.

Rodriguez's attorney told jurors that the couple's on-again, off-again relationship "took a dark turn" that night.

"The evidence will prove ... Daniel Rodriguez acted impulsively," he said.

Rodriguez's lawyer acknowledged that his client had stabbed the teen, saying that it occurred in the heat of passion or a sudden quarrel. The young man was "brutally honest" when he spoke to detectives after his arrest about what had happened that night, he said.

"Find him guilty for what he actually did in this case," Meastas told the jury, saying he would ask them to conclude that Rodriguez is guilty of the "extremely serious charge of voluntary manslaughter."

During the trial, jurors heard Rodriguez's videotaped interview with Los Angeles County sheriff's homicide detectives following his arrest a day after the killing.

The defendant said the two had gotten back together about two weeks earlier after an "on-and-off" relationship, noting that "it was very frustrating" that she didn't believe him when she confronted him about her suspicion that he had cheated on her when he took off his shirt and she saw scratches on his back.

Rodriguez told detectives that he tried to hold her and that she pushed him away before she began hitting him in his shoulder area. He said he got upset and hit her in the face, saying he believed that he struck her twice before she walked outside his home.

"I was just scared of, you know, getting in trouble for hitting her, her just leaving in general," he said in the videotaped interview.

Rodriguez said he grabbed a knife from a kitchen drawer, followed after her and stabbed her, with his girlfriend reacting by screaming, "Help me!" and trying to run.

He told detectives that he drove back later to the area, saw the street blocked off and decided to go to his sister's home in El Monte but had not gotten there when he was pulled over by an Azusa police officer the next day.

Sheriff's Detective Araceli Sanchez testified that investigators had not informed Rodriguez of his girlfriend's status before the interview, explaining that normally people will shut down or not want to talk to them if they are told one of their loved ones is dead.

Jurors also heard two 911 calls from neighbors after the stabbing, and saw bodycam video from now-former Alhambra Police Department Cpl. Andrew Avalos, who repeatedly implored the teen to "stay awake" and "breathe" after unsuccessfully asking her, "Who did this?"

The girl's mother, Leticia Caraballo, called her daughter "amazing" and an "over-achiever" who always loved school, and participated in art competitions and cheerleading.

When asked if she knew the defendant, she said, "Unfortunately, yes."

The girl's mother said Rodriguez had been "very disrespectful to me" and that she believed the two had broken up that summer. She said she hadn't heard her daughter mention him that day and wondered why her phone's location showed it at his house when she had failed to return home that night.

She testified that she was told to go to the Azusa police station, growing emotional as she recounted being informed that her daughter had been in a fight and didn't make it.

Rodriguez has remained behind bars since his arrest.

City News Service