Local News in Brief : Sylmar Man Gets 29 Years in Crime Spree

A20-year-old Sylmar man convicted of 18 counts of robbery and assault was sentenced on Tuesday to 29 years and eight months in state prison.

During the sentencing by San Fernando Superior Court Judge Terry B. O’Rourke, the man, David Orlando Rodriguez, sat in silence, occasionally bending toward his attorney to watch as she tallied the number of years imposed for each count. Rodriguez will be eligible for parole in 15 years.

Rodriguez was convicted on April 1 of eight robberies, one attempted robbery and nine assaults with a firearm. The jury deadlocked, 10 to 2, in favor of conviction on a murder charge and another attempted-robbery charge. A retrial on those charges has been scheduled for Sept. 8.

The charges against Rodriguez stemmed from a string of robberies and assaults in Sylmar during one month in 1982. Investigators said Rodriguez, who was 16 at the time, “went on a crime spree to prove he was bad.”