‘We were greedy,’ woman jailed in triple homicide burglary tells media
BROKEN ARROW — The 21-year-old woman facing murder complaints after her three teenage accomplices were shot and killed after breaking into a Wagoner County home admitted to reporters she was sorry for her role in the botched burglary.
“I know what we did was stupid and wrong,” Elizabeth Rodriguez told ABC News during an interview Thursday at the Wagoner County jail. “We made really bad choices.”
Rodriguez is being held without bond on three complaints of first-degree murder and three complaints of firstdegree burglary. Formal charges have not been filed, but the Wagoner County sheriff’s office announced Friday it will host a joint news conference with the district attorney’s office at noon Monday.
In the interview Thursday on “World News Tonight With David Muir,” Rodriguez said it was her idea to target the house, echoing statements she gave Wednesday to investigators. She told authorities she knew the family living in the home had money and expensive belongings.
Rodriguez said she and Maxwell Cook, 18, Jacob Redfearn, 18, and Jaykob Woodruff, 15, already had broken in Monday morning and stolen speakers from the garage. They returned later to search the rest of the home.
“We just thought we could get more,” she told ABC News. “We were greedy.”
Dressed in all black, including masks and gloves, the three teenagers forced their way inside the residence through a back glass door while Rodriguez and another female waited in the vehicle. Zach Peters, the son of the homeowner, woke up after hearing “loud bangs” and grabbed an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle. He found the three in the kitchen and opened fire before calling 911.
Responding deputies found two of the intruders dead in the kitchen and the third, who managed to get outside, dead in the driveway. Rodriguez said she saw her friend fall down in the driveway and tell her he was shot. She pleaded with him to get in the car but he told her to leave without him, she said in another interview with NewsOn6.
Rodriguez told the Tulsa station she didn’t believe Peters should have shot to kill, adding that he could have aimed for their legs. She said she understood he was scared and that he had his rights, however.
Rodriguez admitted she was guilty of the burglaries but disputed the homicide accusations.
“I didn’t plan this. I wouldn’t plan to kill any of them,” she told Fox23. “They were family.”
She also said she and her friends had burglarized houses across Tulsa a few times in the past, but only when the residents weren’t home.
The Tulsa World previously reported that Rodriguez, a mother of three, was in a relationship with Cook, and the two lived at a home in Collinsville, along with Redfearn. Woodruff had lived in Owasso until recently moving to Tulsa and was close friends with the others.
Authorities are investigating the shooting as an act of self-defense. They said Rodriguez is facing the murder complaints because the three were killed while she was in commission of a felony.
Peters could be protected by the state’s “Stand Your Ground” law.