A Yolo County jury last week convicted a Woodland man of multiple felony charges related to repeated attacks on a woman he was dating, District Attorney Jeff Reisig announced.
Elmer David Rodriguez, 26, was found guilty of torture, felony domestic violence, infliction of great bodily injury, use of a deadly weapon, sodomy, rape, oral copulation, criminal threats, vandalism and dissuading a witness.
Rodriguez committed the crimes over a two-month period, though they were not brought to the attention of law enforcement until Rodriguez sent the victim to the hospital on Feb. 18, 2017, prosecutors said.
West Sacramento police responded late that evening to a hospital emergency room, where the woman reported that Rodriguez repeatedly had beaten her two times that week, including on Valentine’s Day. She disclosed that Rodriguez repeatedly stomped on her chest and legs, kicked her rib cage, beat her with a hammer and punched her arms.
A medical examination showed the woman suffered multiple rib fractures, an injury to her kidney, and bruises that covered her body. Police located and arrested Rodriguez a short time later.
Rodriguez’s prior criminal history included a 2013 conviction for domestic violence against the same victim and a 2015 conviction involving another young woman. He also was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon in 2015 for beating his friend with a glass and a skateboard in Davis, causing severe damage to the victim’s ear and a facial fracture.
At trial, the jury heard evidence from Rodriguez’s current and prior victims and from an ex-girlfriend about acts of physical and sexual violence he committed against them. They described similar abuse such, saying he burned them with a cigarette lighter, stomped on their chests, kicked in their rib cages, urinated and spit upon them and repeatedly punched them in the head.
“The evidence the brave victims offered at trial was compelling and critical in ending Rodriguez’s reign of terror upon our community of young women,” prosecuting attorney Tiffany Susz said. “The verdicts reflect the commitment of the jury to perform their civic duty in a serious and emotional case.”
Reisig commended the law-enforcement efforts of the West Sacramento Police Department, the District Attorney’s Investigations Bureau, the FBI, the Davis and Woodland police departments and victim services advocate Estela Morales for their hard work in this case.
Rodriguez faces life in prison at his sentencing hearing, set for 9 a.m. Jan. 12 before Yolo Superior Court Judge Timothy L. Fall.