Her Baby. Her Husband. Who's Next? The Chilling Story of Angelina Rodriguez.
If I admit responsibility, then I’ll lose everything. I lose all hope. Angelina Rodriguez
Angelina Rodriguez had a rough childhood in Rockaway Beach, New York.
Angelina and her older sister Gigi said their grandfather molested Angelina from childhood through high school. Teenaged Angelina attempted suicide and aborted Grandpa’s baby.
But she was beautiful. Angelina used marriage to improve her life.
Who Married Angelina Rodriguez?
Four men married Angelina:
| Marriage Length | Husband |
|---|---|
| under 1 year | Hector Gonzalez |
| 3 years | Tom Fuller |
| under 1 year | Don Combs |
| under 1 year | Jose Francisco “Frank” Rodriguez |
Each husband knew Angelina less than a year, when they married her.
Angelina married and divorced Hector Gonzalez in 1987. She married and divorced Don Combs in a few months.
Marriage to Tom Fuller
In 1990, Angelina enlisted in the Air Force. She met Thomas Fuller while they were stationed in Colorado.
Thomas married Angelina three months later. Two babies completed their family. Autumn, the first child, was normal. However, Alicia was born prematurely, with an abnormally slow heart.
Did Angelina Rodriguez Murder Her Daughter Alicia Fuller?
Sick babies are not fun. But what can you do?
Clairvoyance
Husband Tom Fuller, Angelina, Autumn and Alicia traveled to Michigan for a vacation in late 1992, or early 1993. A customer noticed Alicia’s pacifier, and approached them during lunch.
…she wanted to let us know that she was pretty sure that that pacifier was part of a recall.
Thomas Fuller
Angelina Fuller bought a $50,000 life insurance policy on her sick baby Alicia. She did not tell her husband about this policy.
Nuk Orthodontic Pacifier Recall and Lawsuit
Gerber recalled Nuk Orthodontic Pacifiers, because the pacifier sometimes separated from the nipple. Babies could choke on a piece of the pacifier, if the parts separated.
Angelina acquired at least one of the recalled pacifiers. She allegedly waited until her husband left town on a business trip. Then she allegedly choked baby Alicia with a “faulty” pacifier.
Did a Pacifier Kill Alicia Rodriguez?
Angelina called 911 for her 13 month old Alicia, on September 18, 1993.
Firefighter David Mandeville was surprised to meet Angelina outside. Because Alicia was in her crib.
…where a child or infant is choking, the parents are with the child.
Santa Barbara County Firefighter David Mandeville
Mandeville removed a piece of plastic from Alicia’s throat. He started CPR. Paramedics arrived. But they could not save Alicia Fuller.
Deputy Sheriff Ralph Ginter found the pacifier pieces in Alicia’s room. He went to the hospital with Angelina.
Angelina asked Sheriff Ginter for the plastic pacifier backing.
…she wanted to keep it, that the manufacturer or company that she purchased it from is going to pay, and she didn’t want this to happen to another child.
Deputy Sheriff Ralph Ginter
Alicia Fuller Autopsy and Lawsuit
Dr. Wallace Carroll performed Alicia’s autopsy. He concluded that Alicia accidentally choked to death.
Angelina and Thomas hired attorney Barry Novak to sue Gerber. Novak sent two pieces of the pacifier to Dr. Wolfgang Knauss, a professor at the California Institute of Technology.
Where is the Report?
Dr. Knauss did not believe the pacifier broke accidentally.
…the ultimate failure as it now appears and documented in these photographs is not consistent with that scenario.
Dr. Wolfgang Knauss
Attorney Novak sent the pieces to Dr. Gary Hamed, a professor at The University of Akron, for a second opinion. Dr. Hamed disagreed with Dr. Knauss.
Dr. Hamed said the pacifier failed because it was, “degraded in some way.”
Gerber did not know about Dr. Knauss’s report.
Homicide Detective Brian Steinwand discovered Dr. Knauss’s report during a search of Angelina’s home after her arrest.
Marriage Ends
The Fullers divorced after Alicia’s death.
There’s times when all I want to do is see her dead.
Then there are times I’m just not 100% sold on it.
And then maybe I’m in denial that I could marry someone who could have done something like that.
Thomas Fuller
Angelina replaced Alicia with a house, boat and car.
If I’d wanted to kill my daughter, I could have just let her die from the bradycardia.
Angelina Rodriguez
21 Years Later…
Prosecutors described the death of Alicia Fuller during Angelina’s murder trial.
They portrayed Angelina Rodriguez as a serial killer, motivated by insurance payments.
I did not kill my daughter. I did not kill my husband.
Angelina Rodriguez
Circumstantial Evidence
Too many coincidences?
There was ample evidence that defendant murdered her daughter.
About two months before Alicia died, defendant took out life insurance on the baby without telling her then husband, the baby’s father, and named only herself the primary beneficiary.
This circumstance alone strongly suggests she murdered her daughter to collect the life insurance proceeds, just as she later murdered her husband to collect on a life insurance policy that she insisted he take out.
She was the lone adult in the house when the baby choked to death and, rather than remain with the baby until emergency help arrived, as the jury could reasonably find a mother would normally do, she left the baby inside and met the police outside her house.
After her daughter died, she seemed more concerned about collecting the pacifier parts and suing Gerber than about losing her baby. Thomas testified that defendant had previously heard about Gerber’s recall of the pacifier on which the baby later choked.
Additionally, Dr. Knauss’s testimony strongly supported a finding that the baby’s death could not have been an accident, especially when combined with defendant’s deposition testimony that she continually checked the pacifier by pulling on it.
His opinion was especially credible given that defendant herself had retained him.
People v. Rodriguez
I do not know if the Fullers returned Alicia’s life insurance payment.
Angelina Marries Frank Rodriguez
Ms. Rodriguez joined the Army National Guard after her marriage to Tom Fuller.
She worked for Angel Gate Academy, a (former) camp for troubled sixth and seventh graders. The school was located on a National Guard base in San Luis Obispo, California.
Jose Francisco Rodriguez, aka “Frank,” was a special education teacher at the school.
On The Rebound
Frank was “on the rebound” after a failed 14 year marriage. He joined a Pentecostal church, and quit drinking and smoking.
Frank met Angelina after she accused a colleague of sexual activity with a student. Frank was the only one who believed her. Angelina quit or resigned after this incident.
But Frank fell for Angelina. They met in February 2000, and married in April.
The couple moved to Montebello, California, hometown of Scott and Laci Peterson.
Frank taught special education at a middle school in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Angelina and Frank Rodriguez Needed a Divorce
Angelina thought Frank, a devout Christian, was overly strict with Autumn.
He was everything, I was nothing…I just wanted out.
Angelina Rodriguez
Unfortunately, instead of requesting a divorce, Angelina persuaded Frank to buy life insurance. In July 2000, Frank Rodriguez bought a $250,000 policy. Angelina Rodriguez was the sole beneficiary.
In August 2000 Angelina began an affair with Matt Morones, an ex-convict and old friend. By September, she had enough of Frank.
Angelina brought Frank to the emergency room on September 6. He could not keep food down. Frank experienced similar symptoms for two months.
Frank thought someone at work was poisoning him.
Sadly, like Bobby Joe Morris, the hospital released Frank to his probable poisoner.
Rodriguez and her daughter Autumn “treated” Frank with Gatorade and soup for three days. Angelina found him dead at 3 AM on September 9, 2000.
Angelina Rodriguez Finds Frank’s Killer
Poor Angelina. Autumn stopped speaking to her Mom. Autumn Fuller thinks she helped Mom poison her stepfather. And the life insurance company would not pay Angelina. Because the autopsy said Frank died of “undetermined causes.”
Anonymous Tip
The greedy widow told police she received an anonymous telephone call. The caller knew how Frank died.
According to Ms. Rodriguez, the anonymous caller said:
Ask them about antifreeze. Angelina Rodriguez
Toxicologists tested Frank for antifreeze. Frank Rodriguez received a large dose, a few hours before his death.
Angelia Rodriguez should have expected police to check her phone. Investigators did not find the anonymous call in her cell phone records.
Detective Brian Steinwand
Police arrested Angelina for poisoning Jose Francisco Rodriguez in February 2001.
Her relentlessness in her effort to pursue her goals was matched only by her stupidity.
Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Doug Sortino
Life Insurance is Better than Divorce
Pamela Gorham testified that she asked Angelina, “Why don’t you divorce this one like you divorced all your other ones?”
No, this one has got a life insurance policy…If I were to kill him, at least I’d end up with a little bit of money.
Angelina Rodriguez
Ms. Rodriguez says Frank committed suicide by drinking antifreeze.
If I admit responsibility, then I’ll lose everything. I lose all hope.
Angelina Rodriguez
Death Sentence
In October 2003, jurors convicted Angelina Rodriguez of first degree murder, “under the special circumstances of murder by administering poison and murder for financial gain.”
Ms. Rodriguez foolishly used telephones in jail to make threatening telephone calls.
Angelina Rodriguez
She was also convicted of trying to arrange for a witness’s murder from jail.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge William R. Pounders sentenced Rodriguez to death.
Judge William R. Pounders
Ms. Rodriguez was admitted to Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF), in Chowchilla, California on January 22, 2004.
Search the Inmate Locator System for CDCR Number X02712 for more information.
Who Protects Witnesses?
Witness testimony put inmates on Death Row.
Angelina Rodriguez plotted to murder a witness, from prison. This is not a new idea. Drew Peterson got 38 years for allegedly plotting to murder the District Attorney from prison.
Write to Angelina Rodriguez
Send Mail to Angelina Rodriguez
Angelina Rodriguez X02712
Central California Women’s Facility
P.O. Box 1508
Chowchilla, CA 93610
Mail is inspected by prison staff, before delivery.
This woman is evil incarnate. A prison cell is too good for her. California needs to do their job and execute her, a sentence she definitely deserves. The amount of destruction she left in her path will never be fully known. Everything she did was calculated and her end goal was a big payday and she didn’t care who or what she destroyed in her pursuit of the almighty dollar.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this deeply troubling case. I understand and respect your strong feelings about Angelina Rodriguez. She allegedly committed horrifying crimes.
I generally oppose capital punishment because of the potential for trial errors: such as incompetent lawyers, unreliable witnesses, lost or hidden evidence, and the possibility of bribed or mentally unstable jurors. But Angelina Rodriguez is accused of asking her daughter to serve poisoned drinks to her stepfather to collect his life insurance. She also allegedly murdered her baby, not only to collect life insurance but also to get rich from the Nuk Orthodontic Pacifier Recall and Lawsuit, with a $710,000 settlement besides the $50,000 life insurance payment.
In cases as terrible as this, the reason for the death penalty becomes stronger. However, with the current laws in California, it is unlikely that she will ever be executed.
Best wishes, Mitchell
I did a deep dive on this and I’m happy to report that her time on death row has not been easy. She is in isolation 23 hours a day and has no phone access. She can’t even speak to her lawyers except between 6 and 8pm mon, wed, and Friday. Her only entertainment is a newspaper but the guards are making sure that they keep mysteriously going missing. They are not delivering her mail either. She attempted to have a witness murdered from prison before her trial. As she is rather dumb, she immediately got caught and lost all privileges. She doesn’t even have a window in her cell and the prison guards hate her. She is getting what she deserves but they need to hurry up with the execution.
You bring up some fascinating points about her time in prison. Angelina Rodriguez never expected consequences for her actions. She reported her husband’s antifreeze poisoning without expecting the police to check her phone records.
She also never expected punishment for threatening a witness.
One argument in her appeals focused on being barred from using the law library while awaiting trial.
It sounds serious. But her daughter Autumn told police that Mommy gave her a “special” bottle of Gatorade for Daddy.
That revelation is unsettling.
Thanks for your comment,
Mitchell
Beautiful? Average, at best. Why do people always exaggerate when they talk about female criminals? Just like Casey Anthony being acquitted because male jurors thought she was hot-maybe if they had spent the last twenty years in solitary. Please!
Does Angelina know Lori Ryan Vallow or have any connections to the Cox family? Lori’s maiden name is Cox. This story sounds a lot like the story about Lori Vallow with the deaths and insurance money.
This case literally has hardly any similarities to Lori Vallows case.
Finnacial gain is the #1 motive for family members killing a loved one/other family member. Whether that be a child or spouse… but, to compare this to Lori Vallow again, literally doesn’t even make sense lol….