Ex-husband pays assassin thousands to ‘eliminate’ ex-wife, feds say. ‘She’s done’
An ex-husband said he was “sick and tired” of his ex-wife and paid $5,000 up front to “eliminate” her, according to federal officials.
Now, Javier Rodriguez has been sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware announced Jan. 12.
The 47-year-old from Delaware is accused of attempting to hire an assassin to travel to his ex-wife’s workplace in Maryland to kill her and anyone else if necessary.
In June 2022, Rodriguez, of Wilmington, pleaded guilty to interstate murder-for-hire, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.
His attorneys described him as “a hardworking, reliable, affectionate man of faith” in a sentencing memorandum in which they appealed for less prison time.
Beyond the sentencing memorandum and transcript of arguments made on Rodriguez’s behalf, his attorneys told McClatchy News on Jan. 16 that they did not have additional comment.
‘She’s done, done’
Over the course of multiple meetings in 2022, Rodriguez discussed the planned killing of his ex-wife for a total of $10,000, officials said.
In February, he took an associate to show where she lived and worked, saying “I gotta eliminate this (expletive), dog,” officials said in the government’s sentencing memorandum.
The associate went to the FBI and told them what he had been asked to do, prosecutors said. The agency then began to monitor their meetings with audio and video recordings.
The confidential source told Rodriguez that another associate would carry out the killing once $5,000 was provided up front but said killing his ex-wife was “extremist” in a transcript of their recorded conversation, according to a criminal complaint.
Rodriguez said “not really,” according to the transcript. He said he would have done it, but he couldn’t be in two places at the same time, the complaint says.
Federal officials said Rodriguez stressed that he wanted his ex-wife dead, not just injured.
“They got to make sure that she is done, you know what I am saying? Because, she’s done, done,” Rodriguez said, according to the criminal complaint.
‘The only option’
On March 23, 2022, the day the killing was supposed to take place, an FBI agent and a task force officer called Rodriguez in and told him his ex-wife was missing and her car was found with blood in it.
“He feigned extreme sadness at the news, including yelling, shoving a chair and crying,” officials said.
Then they confronted him with the murder-for-hire scheme. Agents said Rodriguez initially denied it before later expressing shame. He was arrested and charged.
His federal public defenders requested 78 months of prison time and mental health treatment, 40 months less than the 118-month sentence he ended up receiving. They argued no credible threat of violence was made, and ultimately the woman was not physically harmed.
They also maintained that Rodriguez had a difficult childhood and has emotional regulation issues.
A psychologist wrote in an assessment that “Mr. Rodriguez’s depression, anxiety and trauma clouded his judgment and narrowed his thinking in such a way that he was desperate and he felt that this was the only option to free himself from the emotional pain that he had.”
Friends and family said they were shocked by what happened. In leniency letters to the judge, they described him as the type of man who would be the first one to “to help any person in need.”
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