Last attacker’s sentencing brings officer closure
Third assailant gets 50 years, expresses remorse for shooting
Officer Ann Carrizales woke up Tuesday morning and finally felt like going for a run.
The day before, a third and final defendant had been sentenced in Fort Bend County in the 2013 shooting of Carrizales, then a Stafford police officer. The resolution felt like a weight had been lifted, she said.
Recovering from the attack, after all, had not been easy. Early on Oct. 26, 2013, Carrizales had noticed a car idling at a green light while its turn signal flashed. She pulled it over, approached the car and was shot twice, in the cheek and chest.
The passenger in the front seat fired first. He was the last one to have his case resolved.
A former competitive boxer, Carrizales, 43, likened the experience since then to being in the ring with an opponent pummelling her. She felt as if she had been waiting for the bell to ring, wishing she didn’t have to fight anymore.
A jury in 2014 sentenced the first assailant, 24-year-old Daniel Cruz, to 14 years in prison. Then, in 2015, the second, 30-year-old Fredy De Leon Henriquez, received life.
Still, Carrizales said, “I always knew there was going to be another one.”
Now an officer with the police department in Meadows Place, a small city just off the Southwest Freeway that neighbors Stafford, Carrizales continued working, saying she felt called to law enforcement. She participated in a news conference soon after the shooting with bandages still on her face.
A mother of two and former Marine, Carrizales was lauded for her bravery and attended the State of the Union address the following year. Her wounds were continuing to heal, and she expected to undergo more surgery.
And then, late last week, with scars still on her body, she learned the third case was nearing resolution. She would have a chance to lock eyes with the defendant, whom she had not seen since the night he shot her. Carrizales, who was wearing a protective vest, returned fire and pursued the suspects at high speeds for 20 miles until the suspected shooter was arrested.
Sergio Francisco Rodriguez, 25, pleaded guilty Monday in the 268th District Court to aggravated assault against a public servant and received a 50-year prison sentence. Carrizales said she didn’t take her eyes off him from the moment he entered the courtroom.
In the time after her shooting, she had stared some nights at his picture, with a lot she wanted to say and ask. Now it was time to do that.
Concurrent sentence
The officer hadn’t given victim impact statements in the prior two cases. But Rodriguez was the one who shot her. And she thought part of him perhaps wanted to change. He was the youngest of the three charged.
Her muscles felt tense and tight as she took the stand, Carrizales said. She didn’t know if he would look away, smirk or giggle, like others do.
But Rodriguez made eye contact with her. And when she posed questions that she imagined might be rhetorical, he answered politely, with “yes ma’am’s,” she recalled. Her statement became a dialogue.
“That was the most rewarding part of this whole thing,” Carrizales said. “He gave me that attention.”
Rodriguez’s sentence will be served concurrently with a 35-year sentence he received for a plea in Harris County earlier this month in connection with a murder case. The allegations of his involvement in that case arose following statements he made in Fort Bend County Jail. He could be eligible for parole in 25 years.
A life sentence would also have been appropriate for Rodriguez, but a plea deal allowed Carrizales not to have to endure a third trial, said Chris DeLozier, the prosecutor for all three cases.
“Obviously a life sentence would have been merited,” DeLozier said.
Expresses remorse
Rodriguez expressed remorse, said David Ryan, the defense attorney. He was working to make himself a better man, with the criminal proceedings part of the rehabilitation, the lawyer continued.
“He understood that part of taking responsibility for what he had done required him to face this officer and own everything he did and be completely honest,” Ryan said. “And hopefully this is a sign that he is making progress.”
Rodriguez told KTRKTV-Channel 13 in an interview published Tuesday evening that he was sorry for what happened and willing one day to meet with Carrizales at her request.
“At the end of the day, I knew what was right and what was wrong,” he said. “I knew I was in the wrong from the beginning.”
When his sentence is discharged or Rodriguez makes parole, his case will go to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency for deportation proceedings. Taylor expects Rodriguez will be deported to Honduras.
A federal suit in a separate matter, involving a man who said he was shot in the face during an encounter with Carrizales, terminated in February in her favor and is on appeal. The man, Jay Mazoch, pleaded guilty in a criminal case to aggravated assault against a public servant in 2016.
Carrizales hopes people will remember there’s a person behind the badge and vest. “We do this because we truly care.”