Posted at 11 a.m., Wednesday, July 11, 2001

Killer gets another life term for third death

By Curtis Lum
Advertiser Staff Write

A Wai'anae man who is serving a 100-year term for killing two men got another life term today after being convicted in May of a separate murder.

Circuit judge Dexter Del Rosario sentenced Wallace "Ditto" Rodrigues today to life in prison with the possibilty of parole for the murder of Lorenzo Young in Makaha in April 1988.

Rodrigues, 36, also pleaded guilty today to manslaughter in connection with the October 1990 shooting death of William Lau. He was charged with second-degree murder of Lau, a witness to the killing of Leo Tuaoa. Rodrigues was convicted of the 1990 gangland-style slaying of Tuaoa in May 1999.

He pleaded guilty in 1998 to manslaughter charges for the 1995 shooting death of Wayne Pemberton.

The Hawai'i Paroling Authority already has set a 100-year minimim sentence for Rodrigues before he is eligible for parole for his 1999 conviction. The parole board will again set a minimum sentence on the lastest conviction, but it is unlikely the three-time convicted killer will ever be freed.

In the most recent case, Rodrigues was found guilty of shooting Young three times in the back of the head, then dousing Young and his car with gasoline and setting them on fire at the end of a dirt lane in Makaha on Easter Sunday 1988.