Fresno judge considering death row inmate's request for new sentence

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- The fate of a man on death row is now in the hands of a Fresno County judge as she considers the inmate's request for a new sentence.

Jerry Rodriguez zoomed into court Tuesday from state prison, where he has been on death row for nearly 30 years.

A jury convicted him of two counts of murder and robbery back in 1995.

Teenage cousins AJ and Danny Hernandez paid Rodriguez, who owned a Visalia tire shop, $2000 for custom rims in 1994.

Instead of delivering the rims, investigators say Rodriguez kept the money and hired a hitman to kill the two young men.

"What was done was really wrong, and we can't just let people get murdered and think that it's OK," Anita Hernandez Perez, AJ's cousin and Danny's sister, told Action News.

For the last 18 months, Rodriguez has been asking for a new sentence. He is using a 2018 state law that redefines who is guilty of felony murder.

Rodriguez's attorney says the real murderer is Stanley Michael Skala, the already convicted hitman who pulled the trigger.

"It doesn't make any sense that Mr. Rodriguez would want to kill these two young men," defense attorney Christopher Irwin said. "It makes much more sense that Stanley Skala simply did it on his own."

But Fresno County prosecutors argue Rodriguez was a major participant -- the mastermind, they say -- in the crime that left teenage cousins AJ and Danny Hernandez dead.

"Mr. Rodriguez set up the robbery, had ample opportunity to abate the robbery, and there's evidence that he knew the murder was going to occur," Fresno County Deputy District Attorney Daniel Walters said.

The resentencing decision is now up to Judge Heather Mardel Jones, who will issue a written ruling.

The victims' family members tell Action News they are now anxiously waiting for the judge's decision, which could still be weeks away.

The suffering of their loss is still there as a case that was once closed is painfully reopened.

"We relive like if it just happened yesterday, and it just brings back everything up to the surface," Hernandez Perez said.

"And it takes a lot to be here, but we are here because our family members, Danny and AJ, can't be here."

AJ's brother and Daniel's cousin, Richie Hernandez, characterized Rodriguez's resentencing request as "disgusting" and said he wants to see new laws that protect victims.

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