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Danielle Rodriguez

Other Bexar County, Texas CIU exonerations
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On July 16, 2015, 21-year-old Danielle Rodriguez was arrested in San Antonio, Texas on charges of illegal possession of a prescription drug and trespassing.

Her former boyfriend, 23-year-old Cruze Tovar, called police after he found her sleeping on a couch in his home despite a criminal trespass warning that he had obtained against her in June 2015. When police arrested Rodriguez, they found six tablets that appeared to be prescription painkillers in the bottom of a package of cigarettes.

On December 3, 2015, Rodriguez pled no contest to charges of possession of a controlled substance and trespassing. She was placed on deferred adjudication for six months, a form of probation, which, if completed successfully, results in no conviction being entered on a defendant’s record.

On June 16, 2016, the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office filed a motion to adjudicate Rodriguez’s case because of a probation violation. On June 23, 2016, Rodriguez was sentenced to 48 days in jail. With credit for 24 days already served, Rodriguez was released the next day.

At about the same time, prosecutors in Bexar County District Attorney’s office were prosecuting Tovar on a charge of assaulting Rodriguez on June 25, 2015. During that investigation, the prosecution located hospital records showing that as a result of Tovar’s assault on Rodriguez, she was hospitalized until June 29 and suffered numerous injuries, including a bruised spine. When Rodriguez was discharged, she was prescribed the oxycontin that was in her possession when she was arrested.

Further investigation revealed that although Tovar had obtained a criminal trespass warning prohibiting Rodriguez from coming to his home, in fact, Rodriguez had been called by a relative of Tovar, who asked her to come to see him on the day she was arrested.

As a result, the Bexar County District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit joined in a state law petition for a writ of habeas corpus to vacate Rodriguez’s convictions. The prosecution agreed that Rodriguez legally possessed the oxycontin and that she was not trespassing because she was asked to come to the home.

On January 4, 2018, the convictions were vacated and the charges were dismissed.

In 2017, Tovar was convicted of aggravated assault of Rodriguez and was sentenced to six years in prison.

– Maurice Possley

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Posting Date: 3/26/2020
State:Texas
County:Bexar
Most Serious Crime:Drug Possession or Sale
Additional Convictions:Misdemeanor
Reported Crime Date:2015
Convicted:2015
Exonerated:2018
Sentence:48 days
Race/Ethnicity:Hispanic
Sex:Female
Age at the date of reported crime:21
Contributing Factors:Inadequate Legal Defense
Did DNA evidence contribute to the exoneration?:No