Suspect’s Trail Kept Leading Back to Trouble

On Thanksgiving Day, Manuel Ramirez Rodriguez walked out of the California Institution for Men in Chino a free man.

But just as he had several times before, the 25-year-old Corona man was quickly in trouble with the law--this time less than two months after completing a one-year prison sentence for possession of heroin and a firearm. Rodriguez, who is being held in connection with the shooting death of a 53-year-old Laguna Beach ice cream store owner, became a fugitive Jan. 26 after failing to check in with his parole officer.

Detectives said they suspect that by that time, the former Santa Ana gang member already may have embarked on a crime spree in three Southern California counties that culminated in the killing of Simindokht Roshdieh.

During the past four years, Rodriguez has spent most of his time in and out of state prisons for theft and robbery and various parole violations. He only managed to stay free for a few months at a time before being returned to custody, records show.

“He was always trying to put things back together,” Rodriguez’s 19-year-old cousin, Alfonso Fernandez, said Wednesday.

Fernandez, who said he lived with Rodriguez in a house in Corona until last month, said his cousin may have had a troubled past, but is not capable of murder.

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“They’re trying to make him seem like a coldblooded person and he’s not like that,” Fernandez said as he stood in the doorway of the house owned by the family of Rodriguez’s girlfriend, Janet Samson.

“I know the way he is,” Fernandez said, “He’s not a coldblooded killer.”

Fernandez and other family members and friends have steadfastly maintained Rodriguez’s innocence in the Laguna Beach slayings, saying that had arrived in Chiloquin, Ore., five days before the string of Orange County robberies and shooting Feb. 20.

The girlfriend’s brother, Ron Samson, described Rodriguez as “a real good guy” and said police have created a “bum rap against him.”

It was during his stay in this small Oregon town that the Laguna Beach slaying was featured on television’s “America’s Most Wanted,” an episode which Ron Samson said he watched when it aired March 18.

“It didn’t resemble him one bit,” Samson said of the video image of a gunman taken during the robbery of a Tustin ice cream store which was part of the television segment. “There’s no connection to make. He was up here when it happened.”

Samson, who described his sister as “very upset” over Rodriguez’s arrest, said the couple had planned to start work next week at a local food processing plant.

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But authorities said they believe they have enough evidence to link Rodriguez to crimes that took place during the time Samson and others said he was in Oregon.

Rodriguez was arrested in that state this week on suspicion of robbing a Tustin ice cream store on Feb. 20, and is also suspected of committing the Laguna Beach robbery-slaying that occurred the same night.

Police said they also suspect he was responsible for robbing a flower shop and record store in Costa Mesa earlier that day.

In addition, similar robberies committed by a man fitting his description were committed in Redondo Beach and Hawthorne less than two weeks earlier, according to police in those cities.

Times staff writer David Reyes and correspondent Wendy Culverwell in Chiloquin, Ore., contributed to this story.

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Trail of Trouble

Manuel Ramirez Rodriguez, a former Santa Ana gang member, has a history of run-ins with authorities:

* Feb. 14, 1991: Convicted of second-degree robbery and sent to California Institution for Men in Chino to serve a two-year sentence

* March 9, 1992: Released on parole

* May 18: Violates parole and is convicted in Santa Ana of receiving stolen property and stealing a vehicle; sent to state prison at Soledad to serve 28-month term

* Sept. 2, 1993: Released on parole

* Nov. 24: Parole revoked for possession of firearm and heroin

* Dec. 27: Sentenced to 12 months in prison; returned to Chino prison

* Nov. 24, 1994: Released on parole

* Jan. 24, 1995: Police say man matching Rodriguez’s description robs a Conroy’s flower shop in Redondo Beach

* Jan. 26: Parole suspended after Rodriguez fails to report to and avoids contact with parole officer; warrant for his arrest issued

* Feb. 7: Police say man matching Rodriguez’s description robs Conroy’s flower shops in Redondo Beach and Hawthorne; robberies occur 17 minutes apart

* Feb. 20: Four armed robberies occur in Orange County, culminating in fatal shooting of Laguna Beach Baskin-Robbins owner and wounding of husband; Conroy’s flower shop and Blockbuster Music Store, both in Costa Mesa, and Baskin-Robbins in Tustin also robbed

* March 18: Television show “America’s Most Wanted” airs segment on unsolved robberies and Laguna slaying

* March 20: Riverside County Sheriff’s Department issues an arrest warrant for Rodriguez on unknown robbery charges

* March 26: Rodriguez arrested in Chiloquin, Ore., on a warrant stemming from Tustin robbery

* March 29: Laguna Beach police say Rodriguez also is suspect in ice cream shop killing; friends and family say he had been in Oregon since Feb. 15 and could not have committed the crimes

Sources: California Department of Corrections, court records, Times reports; Researched by GREG HERNANDEZ / Los Angeles Times

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