- William Rodriguez, convicted of a 1995 murder, seeks parole after 20 years in prison.
- Rodriguez expressed remorse, highlighting personal growth since the crime.
- The Utah Board of Parole Pardons will decide whether he should be released at this time.
SALT LAKE CITY — William Rodriguez was living in Missouri, had been staying out of trouble and was scheduled to be married in two weeks.
"I was doing good," he said on Tuesday. "For the first time in my life, everything was so perfect. I mean, so so perfect."
That was in 2005. But while driving one day, he was pulled over by police.
"As soon as they pulled me over, I knew it was them," he said. "As soon as they told me to put my hands up, I knew it was from Utah. ... I knew it was going to come, I just knew."
On that day, Rodriguez's past caught up with him. He was arrested and charged with murder in connection with a fatal shooting that happened 10 years earlier at an apartment near 3900 South and 800 West.
As soon as he was arrested, Rodriguez confessed to everything as if he was ready to rid himself of the weight he'd been carrying around for a decade.
"I couldn't take it anymore," he said.
On Tuesday — 20 years to the day since he was arrested — Rodriguez, now 48, went before the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole for the first time for his murder conviction.
In 1995, Rodriguez says he "was doing pretty bad; I didn't have no money." He couldn't read or write despite attending several schools since moving to Utah from New Jersey when he was 16. He told the parole board on Tuesday that he was approached by three others who asked if he wanted to make "quick money" by participating in a "drug rip" with them.
He agreed. But when they got to the apartment where they were going to rob the would-be drug buyers, Rodriguez says the others unexpectedly handed him a gun. During the transaction, there was an argument, and "I saw a gun, I panicked and ended up shooting the individual," he said.
"I couldn't believe … it just happened so fast," he recalled.
Arian Salguero Huerta, 17, was killed; a second man was injured but survived. During the chaotic event, Rodriguez says he ended up shooting himself in the foot and was treated at a local hospital. Although Rodriguez says he was initially questioned about the fatal shooting, he claims a lack of witnesses prevented police from arresting him at the time.
Rodriguez did serve time at the Utah State Prison, however, for stealing cars. Because of who he was associating with at that time, he says he was housed with other gang members.
"I see now how terrible this was; it was just awful. The experience in Draper (at the old prison) was nonstop; it was always fighting or getting stabbed or getting jumped," he said Tuesday.
After being released in 2002, Rodriguez says he went through a good stretch of getting real jobs.
"It was the first time I felt everything was going correct," he said.
But then Rodriguez's past caught up with him, and he was arrested and sent back to the Utah State Prison. Rodriguez admitted Tuesday that there were times at the old facility in Draper that he didn't think he'd live long enough to have a parole hearing.
"I didn't think I was going to make it," he said. "You have to be a different person, especially in those times in Draper. … Them days in Draper were very difficult.
"I had to be this other person when I came to prison because I was already getting called a 'rat,'" he continued.
Rodriguez said in those days, he was always housed with a cellmate who was a gang member and either a drug dealer, a person addicted to drugs or "one (who) thinks he wants to be a baller." Because of that, he claims he had to live a "double life" and be the "tough guy." In addition to being "shanked" six times himself while incarcerated at the Draper facility, Rodriguez was also convicted of stabbing a cellmate 17 times. The cellmate lived.
"I hate that when they know not to house someone with you, and they do ... I hate that they put me in this situation," he said Tuesday. "I was always getting jumped."
Rodriguez also broke his back while in prison and was confined to a wheelchair for two years. He attended Tuesday's parole hearing while in a wheelchair.
It wasn't until about 2019 or 2020 — after corrections officers showed him information that his alleged gang associates were willing to turn on him — that he decided he no longer wanted to have any connection with gangs. Since then, he has learned to read and write, earned a high school diploma, and is now taking college courses.
Rodriguez says his mental health today is "so much better than what it was," and he no longer has a cellmate at the new prison, calling it the best housing situation he's been in.
Cara Tangaro, who conducted Tuesday's hearing, acknowledged that Rodriguez's disciplinary record has dramatically improved over the past five to six years. But because of his prior actions while locked up, his sentencing guidelines, which are nonbinding, call for him to be held until the year 2032.
Tangaro says the full five-member board will have to weigh his past actions with his current successes in making their decision, and that he may not be granted parole now, but given another parole hearing in the near future to make sure he can continue to stay out of trouble. The full five-member board will now vote on whether to grant parole.
No members of Huerta's family spoke at Tuesday's hearing. But when asked if he wanted to say anything to them, Rodriguez apologized.
"I didn't really know what their pain was until I started losing family members," he said. "There's no justification for (the shooting). I don't care how young you are, a murder is a murder.
"I took everything away from him. Everything. That's what eats me up the most," he continued. "Doesn't matter what kind of lifestyle he was living, I shouldn't have done that."
Now, Rodriguez is hoping not to be defined by his past as he seeks to be released.
"I'm not who I used to be."
