Rockville Centre Man Guilty of Manslaughter in Hempstead Shotgun Death

Rodriguez caught in Coney Island after appearing on America’s Most Wanted; Faces 15 years for Terrace Avenue shooting

MINEOLA, NY – Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced today that a jury has found Ronald Rodriguez guilty in the shotgun death of a Uniondale man in October 2006.  The shooting was the outcome of a street argument in Hempstead and resulted in an 11-month long manhunt in which Rodriguez appeared on the television show America’s Most Wanted.  Rodriguez was apprehended in Brooklyn hanging nearly 80 feet in the air off the side of a Coney Island housing project.

A jury took less than a day to find Rodriguez, 29, guilty of Manslaughter in the Second Degree and Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Third Degree. Rodriguez is scheduled to be sentenced September 5. He faces a maximum of 15 years in prison. The jury found Rodriguez not guilty of Murder in the Second Degree.

Rice said that on October 3, 2006, Rodriguez was throwing glass bottles into the street on Terrace Avenue in Hempstead. Bilah McGraw, 27, told him to stop because it may draw police attention to the area. About a half-hour later, Rodriguez confronted McGraw on Terrace Avenue with a shotgun Rodriguez had retrieved from a hiding place in a nearby alley. After a brief struggle, Rodriguez shot McGraw in the chest.

Rodriguez then fled the scene and was eventually the subject of March and June 2007 episodes of America’s Most Wanted. (Click here for more information) On September 5, 2007, police tracked Rodriguez to a Coney Island housing project where he was found hanging at the end of a nine-foot long rope from an eighth-story window. Rodriguez eventually climbed back up and surrendered to police.

“Mr. Rodriguez learned that there was no running from the consequences of the violence he had committed,” Rice said. “He felt he got disrespected by someone in his neighborhood and a man paid with his life. His actions will put him behind bars for a long time.”

ADA Michael Walsh of the DA’s Major Offense Bureau is handling the case for the District Attorney’s Office. Rodriguez is being represented by Anthony Colleluori, Esq.