A South Florida man in court on Thursday during a hearing where he was sentenced to life in prison lashed out at the widow of the man he killed, a 2015 murder that resulted from a dispute over dog poop.
Omar Rodriguez, 75, yelled at Lissette Rey, who was married to Jose Rey, who Rodriguez fatally shot almost a decade ago in an argument over Rey’s dog defecating on Rodriguez’s son’s lawn.
“The coward was your husband,” Rodriguez shouted in court. “That’s why I killed him! … He cried like a baby.”
Rodriguez’s attorney, Bruce Lehr, confirmed the emotional outburst in court to NBC News during a phone interview on Friday.
Lehr said: “This started with a community ganging up and hating the defendant in this case. And the hatred on all sides boiled over into an unfortunate death.”
He continued, “The emotions continue to run deep, and they flared at sentencing. … I hope everyone remembers the circumstances.”
Rodriguez’s comments were made while Lissette Rey gave a statement, according to NBC South Florida. Rodriguez, who was handcuffed and in an orange jump suit, was immediately removed from the courtroom by multiple officers after the outburst.
Rey told NBC South Florida she had mixed feelings about Rodriguez’s sentence, and didn’t catch all of what he said to her.
“I wasn’t listening to exactly what he was saying. I was tuning him out,” she said. “I was just reading my thoughts. His words are irrelevant. He is irrelevant in my life right now. He is pond scum.”
She wished the death penalty was on the table for Rodriguez, Rey said.
“At the end of the day, Mr. Rodriguez will continue to see his family. They’ll be able to visit him and see him. I’ll never get to see my husband again.”
Rodriguez was convicted by a jury in May of second-degree murder and aggravated assault charges in the June 2015 fatal shooting, NBC South Florida reported. The assault charge stemmed from Rodriguez threatening Rey’s wife.
Jose Rey was walking his dog home in his Kendall neighborhood, a Miami community, when Rodriguez said Rey’s dog was attempting to defecate in Rodriguez’s son’s yard. Neighbors told police that the two men began arguing loudly and Rodriguez told police that Rey threatened to return and fight him, the news outlet reported.
Rodriguez shot Rey, police said, who died from his injuries more than a week later.
After the shooting, Rodriguez requested immunity under Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, but in 2021 a judge ruled he didn’t believe Rodriguez acted in self-defense.
In those proceedings, Rodriguez claimed Rey was threatening his life with a knife, but prosecutors said Rodriguez planted the knife at the scene and tried to jam it inside Rey’s hand, according to NBC South Florida.
Neighbors testified in 2021 and again earlier this year, describing Rodriguez as confrontational and the “crazy neighbor,” the news outlet reported.
