
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 28, 1990                   TAG: 9003280620
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: MONICA DAVEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD                                LENGTH: Short

MAN WHO KILLED HIS GIRLFRIEND GETS LIFE TERM

Hector Rodriguez, convicted of killing his former girlfriend last year, was sentenced today to life in prison.

Circuit Court Judge William Sweeney said he had no reason to change the life sentence set by a jury after Rodriguez' trial in December.

Rodriguez' attorney, Harvey Lutins, asked the judge to impose a sentence less than life. "He's not a model person. He's not a model citizen. He's not a model in any respect," Lutins said. But Lutins said Rodgriguez' sense of grief and shame was already great punishment. He also said Rodriguez was starting on a path of rehabilitation already.

The Commonwealth's Attorney James W. Updike said those factors did "nothing to mitigate the unprovoked and horrendous act" of Rodriguez. Updike said Rodriguez had chased his former girlfriend, Vickie Wright, around her house near the city of Bedford before brutally slashing her and nearly cutting her head off.

Wright, 23, was found dead in her bedroom April 25 near her unharmed, but bloody, infant. Rodriguez, 32, was found beside her with a cut on his throat in what his attorney called a suicide attempt.

by CNB