Suspect Held as the Driver in I-5 Death of Girl

A 28-year-old man was arrested Tuesday in connection with the death of a 12-year-old girl who either fell or was pushed from a moving pickup truck on Interstate 5 in Old Town.

Jesus Hector Garcia of City Heights is being held without bail in County Jail on suspicion of murder in the death of Sylvia Marie Rodriguez. He was arrested shortly before 4 a.m.

A witness told San Diego police that he saw a man push the girl out of a four-wheel-drive pickup truck about 1:30 a.m. Sunday. The witness said the red Toyota pickup with oversized tires was northbound in the slow lane of the freeway at about 60 m.p.h. when he saw the girl lean toward the driver, the passenger door open and the girl being ejected, police said. The girl landed on a service road about 50 feet north of the Old Town exit.

She died of multiple injuries, according to the coroner’s office.

Police said the victim was identified by friends who saw her picture on news broadcasts Monday. Family members were contacted and identified the girl at the morgue.

A search warrant was obtained and authorities arrested Garcia at his house, 3439 45th St.

Police also found a 1989 red Toyota pickup with large tires.

Sulema Rodriguez, the victim’s mother, said two of her nieces knew the suspect. The two girls, ages 14 and 17, had gone with Garcia and his brother to the 20th anniversary celebration of Chicano Park in Barrio Logan on Sunday.

“They later went to my sister’s place, at a motel, to say hi to my daughter, and they introduced him to her,” Rodriguez said. He dropped my nieces off here about 1:15 a.m., and he had to have gone right back to my sister’s house and lied to my daughter to make her go with him. He must have told her that her cousins wanted her. My nieces said that he was kind of drunk.”

Rodriguez said she was surprised that her daughter would leave with the suspect.

“I know her. I taught her never to go with strangers and to be careful with guys like that, and to always take care of herself,” she said.

According to police, Sylvia Rodriguez “walked away” about two weeks ago from Hillcrest Receiving Home, an emergency facility for abused and neglected children.

Authorities said that the mother described the girl as “incorrigible.”

“The mother said the girl was a ‘free spirit’ and very difficult to handle,” said Dave Cohen, a spokesman for the San Diego Police Department.

The girl was living with an aunt at the Ebony Inn Motel & Apartments on 32nd Street.

A 13-year-old neighbor and former classmate of Sylvia Rodriguez at Audubon Elementary School said the victim was “nice, but she got into a lot of fights at school.”

However, in an interview at Sulema Rodriguez’s home in the 7100 block of Lisbon Street, the 30-year-old single mother described her relationship with her daughter as “very close.”

“She was a great person, really loving,” she said. “She was always happy and always smiling. She always told people I love you. Those were her three favorite words.

“I hope that guy gets the worst thing that can happen to him. I hope they hang him. She was just a baby. I’m glad that she’s resting. She’s with God.”