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PROVO — A second brother was sentenced to prison on Monday after an armed robbery during a planned drug deal in an Orem church parking lot led to the 2021 death of a 16-year-old boy.
Sidney Rodriguez, 21 of Spanish Fork, was sentenced to between five years and life for aggravated robbery, a first-degree felony, and between one and zero to five years for manslaughter, a third-degree felony.
Rodriguez told 4th District Judge Christine Johnson that he takes full accountability, but also said he did not know the guns his younger brother brought were loaded. He said he didn't shoot, and didn't have possession of a weapon until after he was fighting for his life.
"I know I can't bring their loved one back, and for that I apologize," he said.
The shooting occurred on June 2, 2021, at 1780 N. 165 East in Orem. Rodriguez was in the victims' car participating in a drug deal when his younger brother approached with a rifle and ordered those in the car to turn over their money and drugs, according to the brothers' guilty pleas.
A struggle ensued over the rifle, leading to two shots being fired. Utah County deputy attorney Richard Kennerley said one hit the legs of two teenagers in the back seat, Camden Hales and Max Day, and another hit the driver, Stefano Damiano, going through his seat and his thigh.
After Rodriguez got out of the car with the rifle that had been pulled inside, the younger brother, Andre Rodriguez, pulled a 9mm gun out and fired shots at the car while it was driving away. One of those shots hit and killed Camden Hales.
Johnson said she would remember this case, and she will remember Camden Hales as "a good kid." She said there were other good kids in the victims' car too, and some who didn't know they were going to a drug deal. She said Camden is not the only victim, and ordered the sentences to be consecutive because of that.
She told Sidney Rodriguez when people bring a weapon to a robbery, they should expect fatal consequences.
"Things like this don't just happen … it's choices, choices that led to what happened," she said.
Sidney Rodriguez' attorney, Dennis Pawelek, asked the judge instead to send Rodriguez to a rehabilitation program. He said his client is young and got wrapped up in something "way over his head" that would not have happened if he were the only one there.
"It spirals out of control when you're not doing the things you're supposed to do," he said.
The defendants' mother also spoke and encouraged the judge to send her son to the rehabilitation program. She said she has seen a "great change" in both of her sons in the last 2½ years. She said Sidney Rodriguez went into jail not being able to read at a kindergarten level, and now he is reading chapter books.
"He is understanding that he's needing to make changes, and he's willing to do the work if you give him the opportunity," she said.
Multiple family members and friends of Camden Hales, including others in the car, said rehabilitation programs do not work and would not be appropriate and encouraged the judge to sentence Rodriguez to prison.
"Nothing short of prison is going to correct this behavior," Hales' uncle, Carlon Williams said, citing 25 years working in law enforcement.
Family members shared similar sentiments to the ones they gave the court about one month ago, when the younger brother, Andre Rodriguez, was sentenced to prison. They said their loss has been immense, and has changed the family. They said the loss is not something that can be explained.
Camden Hales' older brother, Preston Hales, said the loss is "like losing a limb ... it's something that isn't going to come back, in this life at least."
The victim's mom, Holly Lee, said she is "sad and broken" and so are her children, and said they are not just dealing with his death but also that he died in fear and pain.
"It's not just me that's hurting; it's everyone around me," she said.
She also argued for prison.
"This was a premeditated crime … I think they do need to go to prison," she said.
Kennerley read from a transcript of an interview Sidney Rodriguez had with police after he was arrested. He said Rodriguez admitted guns were brought and that it was a "planned armed robbery."
He said the location of the incident, which was chosen by the older brother, created a "significant public safety risk" because it was near a church where people were meeting in the chapel, Boy Scouts were nearby and people on the Murdock Canal Trail saw the incident.
Kennerley said although Sidney Rodriguez has not had much time to compile a criminal history, his history is still serious and violent; Rodriguez was released from custody days before the incident.
Sidney Rodriguez, 18, was the second brother to be sentenced, but the first to plead guilty. Andre Rodriguez was sentenced in November to between two and 20 years in prison for murder, a second-degree felony; five years to life in prison for aggravated robbery, a first-degree felony; and three to 15 years in prison for felony discharge of a firearm causing injury, a second-degree felony.
His sentences were also consecutive.
