Bryant homicide: Preliminary hearing
postponed for Rodriguez
August 29, 2014
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
An Oxnard gang member who has been spending considerable time in court on various charges in two cities will have to come back for a preliminary hearing on the murder of a Santa Paula woman.
Andres Rene Rodriguez, 29, appeared in court Tuesday, August 26 for a preliminary hearing in connection to the July 17, 2013 shooting death of Angela Bryant, 33, of Santa Paula. The hearing was postponed until September 16.
Bryant, the mother of young children, was found in a home on the 600 block of Ojai Road with a single gunshot wound to the head; she later died at Ventura County Medical Center.
Santa Paula Police said Rodriguez, a documented Oxnard La Colonia Chiques gang member living at the time in Santa Paula and Bryant were involved in a dispute over property.
Rodriguez is facing charges including murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, robbery and special allegations related to the Bryant homicide in a alleged crime spree that started July 15 and only ended two days later when Bryant was killed.
After the shooting Rodriguez fled and although there were reported sightings of him throughout Ventura County - including in Camarillo where a highly armed multi-agency task force found the man reported as the suspect was not the fugitive - he disappeared.
Rodriguez was arrested in September in Mexico near the border; also arrested was his companion, Melissa Marie Salazar, 36, whom police said did not participate in Bryant’s murder.
Rodriguez is being tried in separate case related to the June 2013 attempted murder of a bicyclist in Oxnard, a charge he entered a not guilty plea to last week.
He remains in custody in lieu of a $2 million bail, a token hold for the alleged killer because he cannot be released due to his special status as a parolee.
Rodriguez’s September 16 preliminary hearing for the Bryant homicide is scheduled at 8:15 a.m. in Courtroom 14. Nine days later on September 25 Rodriguez will have a pretrial conference on the charges stemming from the Oxnard incident.
