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Nov 10, 2009 8:17 am US/Eastern
DeFede: Teen Confesses to Gables High Stabbing
Click Here For Miami Herald Web Extra: Gables High Confession
Click Here For Miami Herald Web Extra: Gables High Stabbing Video
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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Andy Rodriguez is accused of killing Juan Rivera.
CBS
Prosecutors released witness statements, surveillance video and even the taped confession of 17-year-old Andy Rodriguez, accused of stabbing a teenager to death at Coral Gables High in September.
But anyone who was hoping the material would somehow make sense of this killing -- will surely be disappointed.
"How many times do you think you stabbed him?" the detective asked Rodriguez a few hours after the killing.
"I think twice," Rodriguez said.
"Could you tell me again where you think you stabbed him?"
"Here in the side, and the other one, I don't know, maybe around the back," Rodriguez said showing detectives.
In fact, an autopsy showed Rodriguez stabbed Juan Rivera five times, according to police.
Police also released a surveillance video that shows the two teens as their fight spilled into the courtyard at Coral Gables High.
As the teens slip out of frame, Rivera falls to the ground after having been fatally stabbed. Rodriguez runs away, peeling off his shirt, before fleeing campus. He would be arrested a few blocks away still carrying the knife.
In the courtyard, students can be seen in shock, as they gather around Rivera.
"The person you had the fight with today, do you know his name?" the detective asked.
"No," Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez claimed that while he didn't know Rivera's name, he did see him around school and that the two had elbowed each other in the hall the day before the stabbing.
"Do you know of any reason why he would bump into you, was it accidental or intentional?"
"Maybe it was an accident," Rodriguez said, "but the way he looks at me in school is not an accident."
"How does he look at you?" the detective wondered.
"With a bad face," he replied.
The ultimate cause may be even simpler. Rivera would sometimes get a ride to school with Rodriguez's girlfriend.
Rodriguez didn't like it. He thought Rivera started looking at him differently around school the more time he spent with Rodriguez's girlfriend.
On the day of the stabbing, they saw each other in the hallway again. And again they bumped into each other.
"He came at me, and I went at him, and we went at it," Rodriguez said.
They wrestled to the ground and Rivera had him around the neck from behind. That's when Rodriguez said he pulled out his knife.
"Where did you get the knife from?" the detective asked.
"My pocket," Rodriguez said.
"And what did you do with the knife?"
"I stabbed him," Rodriguez said matter-of-factly.
Rodriguez, charged with second-degree murder, has pleaded not guilty.
Rodriguez's pleas that he was merely defending himself hold little sway with prosecutors. Rodriguez admitted that Rivera never threatened him with a weapon.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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