Verdejo has yet to be sentenced and could face the death penalty
Rodriguez's body was discovered in a lagoon two days after her murder
Verdejo will serve the sentences concurrently and his legal team has 14 days to appeal the official ruling
Professional boxer Felix Verdejo has been sentenced to two consecutive terms of life in prison after being found guilty of the murder of his pregnant girlfriend Keishla Rodriguez Ortiz and her unborn child in Puerto Rico.
The former Olympic boxer, known as "El Diamante", represented Puerto Rico at the London 2012 Olympics, where he lost to the eventual winner Vasyl Lomachenko in the quarterfinals, scored closely at 14–9. Top Rank reportedly paid the talented prospect a $600,000 signing on fee to secure his signature.
The 30-year-old was officially sentenced on Friday, November 3rd, after being found guilty of the crimes back in July this year by a jury in Puerto Rico.
Just before handing down the sentence, the judge in the case said that Verdejo had "Ended the lives of two people. He did it in a horrendous way".
The judge also said, "The level of cruelty only added to the tragedy that led to these unfortunate events. Those lives, as well as those of the family, have been changed forever. There is no way to go back on this."
Being ordered to serve his time in a federal prison, Verdejo will not be able to serve part of his sentence on parole.
Back in July, he was found guilty of both murders, but the court did not agree on two other charges Verdejo faced – carjacking that resulted in the death of a person and possession/use of a firearm in the commission of a crime.
When the verdict was announced in July, the parents of the deceased – Jose Antonio Rodriguez and Keila Ortiz – felt justice was done and hope the murder of their daughter sticks with Verdejo forever.
"In my mind I thought many things, but not in my heart," Mr. Rodriguez said. "I got up every day to come here with the purpose of making her count.
"I have always said that he will live the rest of his life thinking about what he did to my daughter, and that is his worst condemnation. I do not wish him death, I wish him good health and that he can last as long as he can last… if he wants to last 200 years, let him last, but always remember what he did to my daughter."
Mrs. Ortiz stated, "Justice was done for my daughter and my grandson, they did justice for both because they are two lives. This was a macabre murder."
A jury of three women and nine men had deliberated since the afternoon on Tuesday in a trial that took a total of 25 days up until Friday.
The Murder
The body of the 27-year-old Rodriguez Ortiz was found on May 1, 2021 in a lagoon in the Puerto Rico capital of San Juan.
Her killing took place two days prior, when the victim's mother reported her disappearance after she failed to show up for work.
According to a court document, Verdejo reached out to an accomplice, Luis Antonio Cádiz-Martinez, on April 27, 2021 and offered to pay him so that he could help terminate Rodríguez’s pregnancy.
On the morning of April 29, Rodríguez reached out to her mother, Keila Ortiz, to inform her that she would be meeting Verdejo at her home to present him the results of a blood test that confirmed she was one month pregnant with his child.
The mother warned her that Verdejo was dangerous, claiming that he had threatened her in the past because she did not want to proceed with his desire to abort the pregnancy.
Instead of going to her apartment alone, Verdejo was accompanied by Cádiz and met Rodríguez outside her residence where she boarded the boxer’s SUV.
Verdejo, who maintained a friendship with Rodríguez dating back to their days in middle school, punched her in the face and then injected her with an unknown substance that he had purchased from drug dealers at the Luis Llorens Torres residential complex in Santurce, Cádiz told the FBI.
Verdejo and Cádiz then allegedly used wires to bind her hands and ankles, and affixed a concrete block to her.
They later drove toward the Teodoro Moscoso Bridge and dumped Rodríguez’s body into the San José Lagoon, at approximately 8:30am. Cadíz told the FBI that Verdejo stood on the bridge and used his gun to shoot at Rodríguez.
Verdejo was also charged with using and carrying a gun during and in connection to a violent crime. He pled not guilty to the charges. As a result of the conviction, he could face the death penalty.
Co-defendant Cadiz was also charged with crimes in relation to this case, who separately pleaded guilty last November. He faces a maximum of 30 years in prison, though consideration for lesser time was due to his agreed cooperation in implicating Verdejo’s role in the gruesome murder.
A judge approved a request from federal prosecutors and denied both defendants bail.
Rodríguez’s death sparked protests in Puerto Rico, which declared a state of emergency in January over its deep-rooted problem of violence against women.
As reported in 2021, the island had seen sustained levels of violence that on average result in one woman's death per week, a 2019 report from non-profit advocacy groups Proyecto Matria and Kilometro Cero said, echoing a problem in other Caribbean and Latin American countries.
In his last appearance in a boxing ring, Verdejo was knocked out by Japanese Masayoshi Nakatani in December 2020 to win the vacant WBO Inter-Continental lightweight title. The footage of the stoppage that shows Verdejo being battered into submission has gone viral on X. Nakatani dropped the disgraced lightweight with a jab before the referee Celestino Ruiz stopped the action.
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