Judge rejects self-defense claim by Kendall man who killed neighbor in dog poop dispute

Six years ago, a man named Omar Rodriguez — already notorious for tormenting residents in his Kendall neighborhood — was arrested for fatally shooting a neighbor after an argument over dog poop.

Rodriguez insisted he acted in self-defense because the neighbor, Jose “Pepe” Rey, wielded a knife outside a Kendall home. Witnesses said Rey was unarmed and had his hands in the air. And Rey himself, before dying at the hospital, told his wife Rodriguez planted the knife found on the scene.

Now, after months of Zoom hearings, a Miami-Dade judge has ruled that he does not believe Rodriguez, 72, acted in self-defense.

Circuit Judge Robert Watson on Friday afternoon rejected Rodriguez’s request for immunity under Florida’s Stand Your Ground self-defense law. The decision means a jury will ultimately decide if Rodriguez is guilty of first-degree murder for the June 20, 2015, killing that outraged South Florida.

“Mr. Rey did not possess a knife at all,” Watson said, saying it’s likely Rodriguez “planted the knife at the scene in order to be able to claim self defense.”

The Stand Your Ground immunity hearing started in October, and took place over at least five separate dates.

During the hearings, prosecutors presented testimony from over a dozen people: police officers, forensic experts, eyewitnesses, and neighbors who testified about Rodriguez’s contentious relationship with residents. Rodriguez was known to drive back and forth looking for dogs who might urinate or defecate on his son’s property.

During his testimony on Feb. 21, Rodriguez acknowledged that he often turned to police, the courts and the county’s animal services department to “educate” people about dogs and their bodily functions.

“I love dogs, but I don’t take my dog to anybody’s property to poop and pee. I think that is disrespectful,” Rodriguez testified, adding later: “Dogs has got to wear a leash and no pooping in — there is a pooper scooper law by the way. If your dog poops, you got to scoop it.”

Residents of two Kendall neighborhoods blamed him for stalking behavior, verbal threats and frivolous lawsuits. Though he has been arrested several times, Rodriguez has escaped any serious jail time over the years. Since 2008, his neighbors have filed more than 140 complaints with police about Rodriguez’s behavior, the Herald previously reported.

One Kendall neighbor accused Rodriguez of leaving dead kittens in her pool, while another claimed he falsely accused her of illegally neutering animals inside her home. Rodriguez, who finished law school but never became a lawyer, over the years has filed a slew of failed lawsuits against neighbors and even police officers, accusing them of various conspiracies, the Herald reported.

His defense attorney, Lisa Jacobs, had objected to neighbors testifying about their previous run-ins. Judge Watson allowed it.

“A big source of bias, huge source of bias in the way this case was handled by the state and the way it was portrayed in the media. He was called a terrorist, the neighborhood terrorist, the poop patrol terrorist,” Jacobs said during one hearing.

Miami-Dade prosecutor Kim Rivera, during one hearing, said Rodriguez “was the aggressor” who was constantly “going after neighbors, people in the community walking dogs.”

Prosecutors suggested Rodriguez had the knife in his car ready to throw down during a confrontation. A Miami-Dade police officer testified that he saw the same apparent knife, its handle wrapped in black tape, in Rodriguez’s car during an earlier traffic stop one month before the shooting.

“He had himself ready to go so that when the opportunity presented itself he could execute this plan and get away it, judge. He was the perpetrator. He was the aggressor,” Rivera said.

The shooting happened on the night of June 20, 2015, outside Rodriguez’s son’s home in the Village of Kendale, not far from his father’s house.

That day, Rey and his wife had ordered pizza, gone to Home Depot and shopped to prepare for a Father’s Day barbecue. At night, the two went out to walk their four-pound Yorkie named Misha near Rodriguez’s son’s home in the 10300 block of Southwest 97th Street.

They stopped to chat with a neighbor, Hector Serpa, at the man’s fence. Neither Rey nor his wife, a marketing employee at the Miami Herald, even knew Rodriguez. Serpa knew him well — he testified that Rodriguez had been tormenting him for a while.

Rodriguez, who was patrolling the block in his truck, parked on a swale, turned on his high-beam truck lights and began revving the engine menacingly. Video surveillance played at the hearing captured the truck.

Tormentor shot man whose hands were raised, say witnesses to Kendall dog-walking dispute

Serpa explained the problems with Rodriguez. Rey and his wife agreed to stay for drinks, but Rey returned home to put away the dog and prepare a mint julep for his wife.

The shooting took place as Rey was walking back. Rodriguez claimed that the two exchanged words and that Rey brandished a knife.

“I said, ‘Man stand down. Don’t come closer. Stand down.’ I repeated ‘stand down’ so many times. It’s not funny,” Rodriguez testified.

Rodriguez claimed that Rey mocked him as he came forward.

“That he kept coming. He was too close for comfort and he was taking slashes and that is when I decided [to fire],” Rodriguez testified.

Rey’s wife said Rey was walking backward and had only the drink in his right hand — “his arms raised up in the air like Jesus, like on the cross,” she told police.

“She saw his left hand open with nothing in it. She saw a glass in his right hand,” Judge Watson recounted on Friday. “She did not see Mr. Rey advancing toward Mr. Rodriguez.”

The judge also heard that several days after the shooting, as Rey was fighting for his life in the hospital, he awoke briefly and told his wife about the planted knife.

Both men’s DNA was found on the knife. Rodriguez testified that after the shooting, he took the knife and threw it away from Rey’s body. Prosecutors theorized that Rodriguez tried to jam the knife inside the wounded man’s hand, cutting himself in the process.