Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — Andre Rodriguez and his brother, Sidney Rodriguez, were sentenced to prison less than two years ago. Their first parole hearing isn't scheduled for another three years.
But the mother of 16-year-old Camden Hales is already concerned that whatever time they serve won't be enough.
"'I'm pretty much sentenced to a life of sadness. I have been given a life sentence of trauma and sadness and fear, and I just feel like these boys aren't going to be fully rehabilitated," a tearful Holly Lee told the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole on Tuesday. "I don't think it's fair they just get out some day … They're just going to go on with their life and I'm still going to be sad. And nothing can fix it."
On June 2, 2021, two groups met at an Orem church parking lot for a drug deal. Sidney Rodriguez, then 18, went into the back seat of the victim's vehicle to negotiate the deal. But not long after, his brother, Andre Rodriguez, then 16, approached the car with a rifle and ordered the victims to hand over their money and the drugs, according to a statement supporting his guilty plea.
A struggle ensued over the rifle, leading to two shots being fired, injuring three of the four teens in the car. Sidney Rodriguez exited the vehicle, pulled out his own gun, and additional shots were fired at the vehicle as it drove away. One of those shots hit and killed Camden.
The younger Rodriguez was sentenced to a term between two and 20 years in prison for murder, five years to life in prison for aggravated robbery, and three to 15 years for shooting a gun and causing injury. The sentences were ordered to run consecutively. Andre Rodriguez will remain in juvenile detention until he is 25 years old after the judge granted a request by his attorney not to move him to prison immediately so he can work toward graduation and continue with therapy.
Sidney Rodriguez pleaded guilty to manslaughter and aggravated robbery for his role in the incident, admitting he knew there was a plan for a robbery. He was sentenced to up to life in prison for the robbery and up to five years for manslaughter, with both sentences to run consecutively.
The first parole hearings for the brothers are not scheduled until 2028. And even then, as board member Blake Hills told them on Tuesday, there should be no expectations that either inmate will be granted parole.
On Tuesday, however, victim impact hearings were held at the request of Lee for both Rodriguez brothers. A hearing was first held for Andre Rodriguez immediately followed by Sidney Rodriguez. Because the board had to treat each in separate hearings, Lee delivered her statements to the board twice.
At Lee's request, neither brother was allowed in the room as she delivered her emotional comments to the board. The Rodriguezes were each taken to a back room where they were given headphones to listen to her comments and then they returned to the main hearing area and asked if they would like to reply.
Lee began to cry immediately when it was her turn to speak at Andre Rodriguez's hearing.
"Basically my life hasn't been the same and isn't going to be the same," she told the board. "I'm constantly thinking about this. There are nights I get up and I can't go back to sleep.
"I don't feel like what's happening to them is strong enough punishment," she continued.
Lee said she fears the men won't be rehabilitated, though she admitted she doesn't know what programs the Utah Department of Corrections offers. She asked the board to make the brothers serve as much time as possible.
"I don't know how to not feel this way," she said. "I don't know how to have it not affect everything."
Andre Rodriguez responded by reading from a short note he had prepared. He said there isn't a day that goes by that he doesn't think about what happened.
"There is no excuse for what I did," he said. "I'm truly sorry for their mom's pain and suffering."
Rodriguez said he had read the letters submitted to the board about Camden.
"I believe he had a lot of potential. And as a result of my actions, life ended before it could even be started. Again, there are no excuses for what happened and I'm sorry," he said.
During Sidney Rodriguez's hearing, Lee was a little less emotional as she repeated much of what she said during Andre Rodriguez's hearing.
"I feel they need to serve as long as possible for pain for what they did to my son Camden," she said. "I am living out a life sentence of grief, pain. The hardest thing for me is living this shattered life. ... It's incredibly difficult because I miss my child.
"He got roped into going there that day, He was not a drug dealer. ... This is not his life, and he just ended up there that day. It's very unfair and it has caused a lot of trauma and brought a lot of trauma in my life that didn't need to be there," she continued.
During both hearings for the brothers, Lee claimed that she was told by those with knowledge of the crime that it was Sidney Rodriguez who fired the shot that killed her son and that Andre Rodriguez took the blame because he was 16. Both brothers, however, denied the accusation.
"For the record, my brother did not fire a shot that day," Andre Rodriguez told the board. "Every shot fired came from me."
In his response, Sidney Rodriguez apologized for his actions and said he was trying to correct his "thinking errors" while in prison. But he also denied firing the fatal shot, saying, "There is no proof to back that up" and adding, "I don't appreciate that."
Hills reminded both brothers that their first parole hearings in three years will go a lot better if they stay out of trouble while incarcerated and complete the programs they are asked to complete.
"How the hearing will go is largely upon you," he said.
