Murder spree suspect Jose Rodriguez cut off his ankle monitor on July 5
HOUSTON -- Eyewitness News has learned that murder spree suspect, Jose Gilberto Rodriguez, removed his ankle monitor on July 5, 2018. An automatic tampering notification alert went to a parole command center and to his parole officer.
On July 8, authorities received a dead battery notification, and a warrant was issued for Rodriguez's arrest, according to officials with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
They added that even after the tampering notification, the monitor kept showing movement, so there were no 'red flags' for a man they called a 'model parolee.'
Rodriguez was wearing the monitor as a registered sex offender. He was paroled in September 2017 after serving 27 years in prison on multiple criminal convictions, including an additional charge while incarcerated.
According to authorities, Rodriguez first came to the Houston area in December 2017 from Dallas. He lived at a halfway house until March, when he moved into an apartment.
In a joint news conference Monday evening, Houston police and the Harris County Sheriff's Office linked Rodriguez to the murder of a female Saturday at the Mattress Firm near Willowbrook Mall, and the killing of a 62-year-old widow in Cypress last Friday.
Rodriguez met with his parole officer several times a month, last passed a random drug test in May, and had a job working at Tyson Foods on Houston's east side. A Tyson company representative says Rodriguez worked there for a few months but is no longer employed there.
