The man accused of fatally stabbing 49-year-old Keisha Alexander last year has been offered a plea deal of 30 years in state prison for murder.
Jorge L. Rodriguez, 21, was indicted earlier this year on a dozen charges and faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if he is convicted of killing Alexander.
Jorge Rodriguez
His plea deal calls for the 30 years to be run consecutively to any time a judge sentences to him in two separate cases for a January 2014 burglary in Lawrence Township and possession of an imitation firearm from 2013 out of Hamilton, said Casey DeBlasio, spokeswoman for the county prosecutor’s office.
The burglary charge carries a maximum sentence of five years and the imitation gun charge carries a maximum penalty of 18 months in state prison. The sentences are stayed while the murder case is pending, court officials said.
Rodriguez’s attorney, Kathleen Redpath-Perez, said Thursday in court she intends to file court papers to try to suppress her client’s statement to police. She may also seek an expert to determine Rodriguez’s “mental state” when he spoke to police, although she said her client’s competency does not appear to be in question.
Several members of Rodriguez’s family were present for the proceeding. Rodriguez, his hands shackled and wearing orange prison garb and a skull cap, waived to them when he was brought into court by sheriff’s officers.
Rodriguez is accused of breaking into Alexander’s Edgewood Avenue apartment early June 21, 2014. He beat and sexually assaulted Alexander after she confronted him, prosecutors have said, then stabbed her with a knife and left her inside her apartment to die.
A neighbor heard the woman screaming and called police. Alexander died at the scene.
Rodriguez was arrested the same day as the murder remains in jail on $500,000 cash bail.