'He cried like a baby!': Man who gunned down neighbor in dog poop dispute taunts victim's wife, calls her a 'b----' in courtroom explosion

Background: Omar Rodriguez is dragged out of a Florida courtroom on Aug. 15, 2024, after he screamed at Lisette Rey, the wife of Jose Rey, the man Rodriguez killed in 2015 after a dispute over dog poop (Miami Herald/YouTube). Top inset: Jose Rey (GoFundMe). Bottom inset: Lisette Rey speaks to the press in a Florida courthouse after Rodriguez is sentenced on Aug. 15, 2024. (Miami Herald/YouTube).

Before Omar Rodriguez, 74, was sentenced to spend what will be the rest of his life in prison for murdering his son’s neighbor Jose Rey, 52, in cold blood over a dispute over dog poop , he screamed at the victim’s wife in a Florida courtroom Thursday, calling her a b—- and exclaiming: “A coward was your husband. That’s why I killed him … he cried like a baby!”

Rey was killed nearly a decade ago in June 2015 and according to prosecutors, Omar Rodriguez shot him because he believed Rey was allowing his dog to defecate in Rodriguez’s son’s yard, according to the Miami Herald .

Prosecutors said Rodriguez confronted Rey and his wife, Lisette Rey, while they were walking their dog around their neighborhood in Kendall, Florida. Rodriguez accosted the couple verbally once before Jose Rey and his wife took their dog back to their home and then continued a regular stroll through the community. They came upon Rodriguez a second time. As the Miami Herald noted, Rodriguez was shirtless and threatened the couple.

South Florida NBC outlet WTVJ reported in May that neighbors heard the men arguing. And then, there was gunfire. Rodriguez shot an unarmed Rey three times in front of his wife and then verbally threatened her.

WTVJ reported that Rodriguez told police after the shooting occurred that it was Rey who had threatened to fight him.

Rey would succumb to his injuries and die in the hospital a week after the shooting. A jury took just six hours to render its verdict in May, convicting Rodriguez of second-degree murder and aggravated assault charges.

The stream of obscenities’ that flowed from Rodriguez toward Lisette Ray nearly a decade after he killed her husband appeared to be a direct response to her remarks about him in open court before sentencing, according to local Fox affiliate WSVN.

“I beg Your Honor, the harshest sentence imposed to the coward, the murderer,” Lisette Ray said.

“The pathetic coward was your husband. B—-! That’s why I killed him,” a handcuffed Rodriguez shouted.

He was removed from the courtroom by a small phalanx of officers, cursing at the victim’s wife as he went.

When the hearing concluded, Lisette Rey said she wished capital punishment was an option for Rodriguez but accepted that he will spend the rest of his natural life in prison.

“I wish, though, that the death sentence would’ve been on the table,” she said, according to WSVN. “Because at the end of the day, Mr. Rodriguez will continue to see his family, they’ll be able to visit him and see him. I’ll never get to see my husband again, so where’s the justice in that? So, at least he is behind bars, and he can’t harm anybody else.”

She also called him “pond scum” and said “his words are irrelevant.”

The Miami Herald conducted its own investigation into Omar Rodriguez and found what the outlet described as a “ reign of terror ” he allegedly foisted on neighbors spanning from Coral Gables to Kendall and dating back to the early 1990s.

Neighbors have accused Rodriguez of screaming at and accosting neighbors and at one point, he allegedly waved a machete at a lawn worker while threatening him. The outlet noted Rodriguez has previously pleaded guilty to battery on a police officer but got off with probation only.

After he shot Rey, Rodriguez invoked Florida’s so-called “Stand Your Ground” law to defend himself from the charges.

On March 19, 2021, according to the Miami Herald , Judge Robert Watson rejected that defense and further rejected claims by Rodriguez that Rey had a knife on him.

“Mr. Rey did not possess a knife at all,” the judge said.

Instead, he said, evidence suggested Rodriguez “planted the knife at the scene in order to be able to claim self defense.”

Rey also told his wife this while he was dying in the hospital, according to the outlet.

Rodriguez has already served nine years in prison. When he was sentenced Thursday, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Milton Hirsch sentenced him to life in prison with a minimum of 25 years behind bars, and at Rodriguez’s age, that is the equivalent to life in prison. The death penalty was removed by jurors who weighed the case.

Assistant State Attorney Kimberly Rivera told Hirsch on Thursday that Rodriguez was among the most dangerous defendants she’s ever come across.

Seeking a harsh sentence for Rodriguez, she played a clip in court for Hirsch to listen to. It was a recording of the Kendall man saying: “If I had to do it all over again, I’d do it the same way.”

An attorney for Rodriguez did not immediately return a request for comment to Law&Crime on Friday.

The post ‘He cried like a baby!’: Man who gunned down neighbor in dog poop dispute taunts victim’s wife, calls her a ‘b—-‘ in courtroom explosion first appeared on Law & Crime .