DNA, witnesses are key to case against Rodriguez

More than 35 years after Patricia Rodriguezs body was found with 108 stab wounds in a Lackawanna cemetery, two prosecution witnesses and DNA evidence allegedly linking her estranged husband to the fatal attack were the focus of opening statements Friday at Michael Rodriguezs murder trial.

Assistant Attorney General Diane M. LaVallee said the defendants then-girlfriend will testify that, in a phone conversation early that Good Friday morning of 1979, Rodriquez told her he had killed the 21-year-old mother of his two children.

Defense attorney Paul J. Cambria told the Erie County Court jury that the girlfriend gave two inconsistent statements to authorities, raising questions about her credibility.

LaVallee also said a witness will testify that he saw Michael and Patricia Rodriguez leaving a Lackawanna bar together sometime after 2 that morning and later entering Holy Cross Cemetery.

Cambria questioned that witness ability to identify either of the Rodriguezes that night.

LaVallee also said DNA evidence shows the victims blood was on the jacket the defendant was wearing that night.

Cambria called the DNA evidence completely unreliable, noting that the DNA testing occurred 30 years after the attack and that Lackawanna police may have mixed the jacket with the victims bloody clothing after her body was found.

Michael Rodriguez, 60, of South Buffalo, was indicted last November in the April 13, 1979 slaying of his estranged wife, who was mother of their then-4-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son.

State police reopened the long-unsolved murder case in 2009 at the request of Lackawanna Police Chief James L. Michel Jr.

In reviewing the cold case, State Police Senior Investigator Christopher S. Weber took a second look at forensic evidence found in the cemetery, used scientific technology that did not exist at the time of the slaying and re-interviewed witnesses.

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DNA, witnesses are key to case against Rodriguez