Prep Star Rollins Guilty of Murder

Offord Rollins IV, a high school All-American track star from Wasco, Calif., was found guilty of first-degree murder here Friday in the shooting of his former girlfriend.

After deliberating for three days, the seven-man, five-woman jury delivered the verdict to Kern County Superior Court Judge Roger Randall at 11:45 a.m. Many in the standing-room-only courtroom burst into tears and started screaming as the verdict was read.

Rollins, 18, who showed little emotion during the four-week trial, put his head on the table, pounded his fists and started crying. Rollins’ father, Offord Rollins III, bolted from the courtroom and yelled in the hallway for 15 minutes.

Joy Rollins, the defendant’s mother, asked the bailiff if she could give her son a hug before he was taken away, but two guards handcuffed Rollins and quickly escorted him out of the courtroom.

Rollins, the defending state champion in the triple jump, was taken to Kern County Jail for booking. He will stay at the nearby Lerdo Detention Facility until sentencing on May 1.

Because Rollins was convicted of first-degree murder with use of a gun, he stands to get a sentence 28 years to life in prison, with the possibility of parole only after two-thirds of the sentence has been served.

Defense attorney Timothy Lemucchi said he will ask that Rollins be taken into custody by the California Housing Youth Authority, rather than going to a maximum-security facility.

Rollins was charged with killing his former girlfriend, 17-year-old Maria Madera Rodriguez, on Aug. 2, 1991. According to sheriff’s reports, Rodriguez was shot in the back and in the left ear, and her body was dumped in a wooded area next to a canal that runs along California 46, east of Interstate 5 near Lost Hills.

Investigators never found the murder weapon.

Rollins maintained his innocence throughout the trial.

“Right after the verdict was read, Offord just leaned on my shoulder and kept saying, ‘I didn’t do it. I didn’t do it,’ ” said Susan Peninger, a defense investigator. “What makes this hard is that I know he’s telling the truth.”

An hour after the verdict, Joy Rollins had regained her composure.

“Offord got me up this morning and told me to get dressed,” she said. “He ate a bowl of cereal and was acting just like his usual self. We were all so confident that he’d be found innocent that I didn’t prepare for this.

“I’m only sorry I didn’t give him a hug and kiss today. I just didn’t realize he was going to be taken away from me.”

Miriam Rodriguez, the victim’s mother, attended most of the trial but was not present for the verdict.

Lemucchi, a criminal lawyer in Bakersfield for the last 27 years, said he will petition for a new trial at sentencing.

“After listening to all of the testimony, I am surprised and shocked at the verdict,” Lemucchi said. “I feel strongly about the tactics of the prosecution. They used a racially motivated strategy, and it started with jury selection.”

Lemucchi was upset that there were no black jurors. Rollins is black. Of the 95 potential jurors, four were black, but Deputy District Attorney Lisa Green dismissed them all.

“All four of them had some connection to people involved in the case so I couldn’t allow them on the jury,” Green said.

In her closing argument last Tuesday, Green told the jury that a big question in the case was motive. She compared Rollins’ killing of Rodriguez to Mike Tyson’s rape of a Rhode Island beauty pageant contestant.

“Mike Tyson is rich and famous and could get lots of girls,” Green told the jury. “He didn’t need to rape that girl to get sex. Sometimes people just do things, and there is no reason for it.”

Rollins, a senior at Wasco High, about 30 miles west of Bakersfield, was arrested for questioning in Rodriguez’s death on Aug. 4, four days before his 18th birthday. He was released because of insufficient evidence two days later, then was arrested again Aug. 28 while attending classes. Police had found the dead girl’s fingerprints on the car Rollins was driving the day she was killed. Rodriguez had attended Shafter Continuation School, less than 10 miles from Wasco.

Rollins was released on $100,000 bail from Kern County Juvenile Hall on Nov. 7. He returned to school after his release and expected to graduate in June. He also resumed track practice and took second in the high school triple jump at the Sunkist Indoor meet last February at the Sports Arena. He stopped attending classes and track practice during the trial, which began with jury selection on March 2.

A major issue in the trial was the time of Rodriguez’s death. The defense claimed she was killed after 6 p.m. Aug. 2. The prosecution said it was about 2 p.m. Rollins had no alibi from noon to 2:30 p.m.

Although Rollins said he was dating someone else at the time of Rodriguez’s murder, he did say he talked with the victim the morning she was killed. But he denied ever seeing her that day.

Rollins lives in Wasco with his mother and sister Annell, a sophomore who also attends Wasco High. Annell was with the school’s track team in Fresno on Friday.

Rollins’ parents are divorced, and his father lives in Los Angeles.

Rollins is widely known in the community for his athletic abilities. During his junior year, he was the star running back on the football team and the state champion in the triple jump. College coaches in both sports had recruited him.

Track was his favorite sport, and he had hoped to make the Olympic team in 1996 in the triple jump.

“I’m just anxious to get back to track practice when this is all over,” Rollins had said this week.