'Most dangerous person in Hawai'i' convicted again
Advertiser Staff
A Wai'anae man described by prosecutors as "the most dangerous person in Hawai'i" was found guilty yesterday by a Circuit Court jury of second-degree murder for the April 1988 slaying of Lorenzo Young in Makaha.
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Wallace "Ditto" Rodrigues has now been found guilty of killing three men. He still faces trial on a charge of killing a fourth man.
Wallace "Ditto" Rodrigues faces life behind bars.
City Deputy Prosecutor Chris Van Marter said he will ask for a consecutive prison term when Rodrigues is sentenced July 11 for Young's murder.
The Hawai'i Paroling Authority already has required that Rodrigues serve a 100-year minimum sentence before he is eligible for parole after his conviction in May 1999 for the 1990 gangland-style killing of Leo Tuaoa. In addition, Rodrigues pleaded guilty in 1998 to manslaughter charges for the 1995 shooting death of Wayne Pemberton.
Van Marter said Rodrigues originally was charged with second-degree murder in connection with Pemberton's death, but pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of man-slaughter in a plea agreement negotiated by a different prosecutor after the first murder trial resulted in a hung jury.
In addition to convictions for causing the deaths of Young, Tuaoa and Pemberton, Rodrigues faces yet another trial on a first-degree murder charge in the October 1990 death of William Lau, who was a witness to the Tuaoa killing.
The jury deliberated for two days in the most recent case before finding Rodrigues guilty of shooting Young three times in the back of the head and then dousing Young and his car with gasoline and setting them afire at the end of a dirt lane in Makaha on Easter Sunday 1988.
"Today's verdict is further evidence of why we characterize Mr. Rodrigues as one of the most dangerous men in the state of Hawai'i," Van Marter said. "He has no regard for human life, it doesn't take much at all for him to kill someone, and we are very, very pleased with the jury's verdict today. It took 13 years, but justice has finally been served."
Van Marter said Young, who was 31 years old, was a low-level drug dealer who was killed by Rodrigues for skimming money from the sale of drugs given to him by a supplier, whom Van Marter declined to name.
He said Rodrigues aspired to be like the late Charlie Stevens, another Wai'anae Coast underworld figure who was convicted of federal racketeering charges.
Rodrigues' defense contended that Young's killers still are at large.
The break in several of the murder cases came in 1999 when Samson Fernandez, a former close friend of Rodrigues, told police that he was present when Rodrigues killed Pemberton in 1995, Van Marter said. A few weeks later in 1999, Rodrigues described to Fernandez how Young was slain, Van Marter said.
All three of the killings involved a gun, he said: Tuaoa was shot twice in the chest, Pemberton was shot twice in the head from point-blank range, and Young was shot three times in the back of the head, Van Marter said.
Rodrigues did not react when the verdict was read.
Van Marter said he has not determined what length of sentence he will urge the Paroling Authority to impose, but said he will ask Circuit Judge Dexter Del Rosario to order that Rodrigues begin serving whatever sentence he gets for Young's death after he finishes his 100-year term for Tuaoa's slaying.
Rodrigues is 35 years old.
