September in West Texas is one of those months where the weather is sporadic. One day the skies could be peaceful, the breeze light and crisp, and you can feel a hint of Fall in the air. Some days are trapped in the dog days of Summer, the heat of August still clinging heavily to the red dirt, and driving everyone inside their homes to escape the oppressiveness of the outdoors. Other days are simply best described in one word: wind. Not windy, per se, as this is far beyond what an average person who hasn’t experienced the high plains or panhandle of Texas in Spring or Fall would imagine, but simply wind; the gusts often break trees, rip the shingles off roofs, and blow down fences. Fortunately, on September 13 of 2005 the weather in Lubbock, Texas was close to an average day for that time of year-high in the mid nineties and wind speeds in the teens-because that was the day that the police finally found a body, stuffed in a suitcase, buried away in the landfill outside the city.
Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock sits squarely beneath where the panhandle just ends, in the Northwestern area of the state, the main city in a region dubbed the High Plains. With a current population of around 258,862, Lubbock is the eleventh most populous city in Texas; its nickname is the Hub City, so derived from being the hub of all major industries and services in an area that is otherwise quite rural. One of these industries is the military and the marine reserves headquarters local chapter in Lubbock.
Summer and Joanna
Summer Baldwin is described in every publication as a happy person who always managed to find the positive side of a situation. Her life started in Washington state, in August of 1976, but she grew up in New Mexico. Summer grew and eventually decided to study cosmetology. It was in 2005 that she decided to move to Lubbock to make a life on her own, with the support of her Aunt Terri who lived nearby. It was September when Summer finally made her way across the state border and began the process of setting some roots in the West Texas town. But, only three or four days after Summer’s aunt had first seen her upon her arrival in town Summer had vanished, unable to be reached by family or friends.
A year prior, in 2004, another young girl was also gaining independence among the tumbleweeds and dry air of the High Plains. Joanna Rogers was only 16 years old in 2004, and on the morning of May 4 her mother, Kathy Rogers, went into her daughter’s room to wake her up only to find an empty bed. Joanna’s favorite coat, her keys, and her wallet were all still in her room, but Joanna herself could not be found, leaving her parents, and eventually the police and public, in confusion.
Joanna Rogers (Left)
Summer Baldwin (Right)
Rosendo Rodriguez III
In 1980, another individual was being introduced to this world in the Northern Texas city of Wichita Falls. Rosendo Rodriguez III was born March 26, and brought forth into a family that was far from ideal. Rodriguez’s father, Rosendo Rodriguez Jr., was allegedly a person struggling with alcohol addiction and was domineering over the family, often beating his wife in front of his children. Rodriguez’s sister, Sophia, also testified to the same account during his trial, remembering a childhood full of violence and anger.
Rodriguez attended Texas Tech University in Lubbock for his college. While there he worked as a fast food worker and an office clerk before eventually becoming a Marine reservist. He lived in Lubbock for his college years but eventually moved down South to San Antonio, Texas. While little details are known, Rodriguez also had a six year old son (as of 2005). But, Rodriguez had only ever seen the boy three times during the boy’s life.
September 2005
On September 13, 2005 a local landfill worker was carrying on about his daily business when he discovered something horrific: the body of a young woman, obviously grievously wounded and dead, stuffed inside a rolling suitcase, and brought in by a garbage truck to be dumped among the trash. The worker reported the finding to his supervisor, who in turn contacted the police. The police immediately locked down the landfill, restricting all access to process the crime scene. Despite the difficulty of searching for forensic evidence in a trash dump, the investigators were quickly able to access that the unidentified woman had been dead less than three days, and that, likely, she had been placed in the suitcase within the last 48 hours. A medical examiner discovered horrific facts from the condition of the body: she had defensive wounds all over her body, she had been severely beaten, and her cause of death was asphyxiation. The medical examiner found a tattoo on the wrist of the woman as well; a simple flowing script that read “Summer”. And, only adding to the tragedy of the young woman’s death, the medical examiner found that she had been about five weeks pregnant. Upon running Jane Doe’s fingerprints through the database the police finally had a name for their victim: Summer Baldwin.
The Investigation
With a name finally secured, the police tracked down the family of the victim and found that her parents lived in Roswell, New Mexico, about 170 miles from Lubbock. After delivering the grim news of their daughter’s demise, the police did their best to gather any information possible on Summer in the hopes that they could find clues about her life and death. Her parents directed the detectives back toward Lubbock and Summer’s Aunt Terri, who shared that Summer had only been in Lubbock three or four days before her disappearance. The early pregnancy also tipped police off to the idea of father and helped them draw up a quick idea of a suspect in the murder. Both Terri and Summer’s family in New Mexico referenced a friend of Summer’s, a woman named Margie Estrada. Investigators located Estrada and questioned her, but Estrada, who had been Summer’s best friend, was distraught and could only provide one name: Summer’s ex-boyfriend, Laquincy Freeman. Through more investigation, the police found that Freeman and Summer’s relationship had been tumultuous at best. Everyone who knew the couple reported that they were prone to loud and aggressive verbal arguments, though no one reported any physical altercations between the two.
The detectives managed to locate Freeman and question him about Summer’s death. He was reported to be oddly calm during the interrogation, but stated that he had dated Summer and that they had broken up and both since moved on from each other. The police were still skeptical, but had no hard evidence, so they suggested that Freeman take a lie detector test. Freeman did so and passed with ease, no signs of deception suggested in his responses. With nothing to hold him on, police let Freeman go and continued the investigation.
The case stalled for a bit as the police struggled to come up with another lead. But, within a few weeks, Margie Estrada approached the police with more information that she hadn’t remembered before in her state of intense grief. Estrada recalled that she had seen Summer the night of September 11 at a 7–11 convenience store and that she had been accompanied by a man Estrada had never seen before. She described this mystery man as a light-skinned Hispanic who was clean cut and that he and Summer had left together in what Estrada assumed was the man’s vehicle, a red pick-up truck. Police, emboldened by this new lead, found which 7–11 Estrada had mentioned and asked to see the CCTV footage. While they were unable to ever establish that Summer was there or identify any faces, the investigators did find a red pick-up pulling up to the store around 11:30pm and determined it to be a Dodge Ram.
Still, a truck and vague description weren’t enough evidence to track down a suspect, and so police turned to the only other hard evidence they had: the suitcase. The most notable aspect of the suitcase was that, despite containing a dead body and being tossed in a landfill, the luggage was surprisingly clean, suggesting that it was purchased recently. In a stroke of good luck the police were able to find an UPC code on the inside of the suitcase. Using the information from this code, the police were able to track down the retailer that sold the case, Wal-Mart. At the time there were only two Wal-Marts in Lubbock, so the police headed out to each store to investigate. After looking up the product code the store employees could determine that the particular suitcase in question had only been purchased two times in recent weeks, one being purchased in the afternoon and the other at 3am. The first purchase was investigated but the purchaser of the luggage was cleared of any suspicion leaving only the late night purchase yet to study. Investigators combed through the CCTV footage at the Walmart where the 3am purchase had been made and did indeed find the suitcase being purchased but the video quality didn’t lend any new solid information. The buyer was likely a hispanic male with a military style haircut but the purchase information led the detectives nowhere. However, it was found that the buyer returned later, spotting him in the camera footage, and made a second purchase. This purchase ended up being a box of latex gloves. Using the outside CCTV footage the detectives hoped to attach this individual to a red truck, but all they could see was a hispanic male pulling the suitcase toward a dark colored, unidentifiable truck. Viewing the truck as it left the parking lot gave the investigators nothing, but finding the moment that the truck pulled into the lot before the purchase revealed that it was the correct make and model, although the license plate was unable to be identified.
Police worked quickly to narrow in on this suspect. Knowing that he had used a debit card to purchase the suitcase was a big help in leading their investigation, and the detectives hurriedly obtained a search warrant for the bank the debit card was linked to so that they could identify the owner of the account. At last, the police found a name for their suspect: Rosendo Rodriguez III.
Aside from the name of their perp, the bank account and transactions revealed two other things: that Rodriguez’s permanent address was located in San Antonio, Texas, over 400 miles away from Lubbock; and that the same debit card was used to make another purchase the day that Summer died. The bank records showed that a purchase had been made on Rodriguez’s debit card at the same 7–11 that Summer had been seen at prior to her murder. This, coupled with the video footage of the truck, proved Rodriguez had at least been in the general vicinity of Summer’s last known location the day of her murder.
The most surprising piece of information the police learned about Rodriguez was his affiliation with the US military. Rodriguez was a reservist with the US Marine Corps, and, to solidify his involvement with the case even further, his reservist unit was based in Lubbock. Contacting the reservist unit, the police learned that Rodriguez didn’t stay on base while there for mandatory training, but rather stayed in the Holiday Inn-Civic Center location. Yet another clear clue was found in this information as this particular Holiday Inn was directly across the street from the 7–11.
Rodriguez was already gone from his room at the Holiday Inn by the time the investigators arrived, but they were given access to the room he had occupied during his stay. The forensic team was called in and during their search they found: a patch of dried blood, a Wal-Mart bag, and a pair of latex gloves. This, alongside all of the evidence collected so far, was exactly what the police needed to arrest Rosendo Rodriguez III.
Rosendo Rodriguez III
The Capture
Rodriguez was surprisingly easy to find. Police located him at his mother’s house in San Antonio, Texas, and he didn’t seem the least surprised to find officers standing at the front door. He was taken in for questioning and wove his tale to the police.
According to Rodriguez, he and Summer met up with the plan to return to his hotel room and engage in consensual sex. However, during their time together, they got into an argument and, per Rodriguez, Summer pulled a knife on him. Rodriguez claimed he had to put Summer in a choke hold in self-defense, and when she still didn’t drop the knife he continued to hold her around her neck until she was no longer fighting and fell limp. When challenged about where the blood stain came from Rodriguez explained it away by saying that Summer had a nose bleed.
Unfortunately for Rodriguez the medical examiner’s findings told a different story, and the forensic evidence was inconsistent with his story of self-defense. Police placed Rodriguez under arrest and charged him with the murder of Summer Baldwin.
The Trial
Rosendo Rodriguez went to trial in March 2008 for the two capital murders of Summer Baldwin and her unborn baby. Prosecutors came into the trial seeking the death penalty for Rodriguez. The trial was straight forward and the amount of evidence against Rodriguez was so compelling that on April 1, 2008, Rodriguez was found guilty of two counts of capital murder.
During the sentencing phase of Rodriguez’s tirla, in a shocking turn of events, Rodriguez confessed to the murder of Joanna Rogers, and even told of how he had disposed of her body in a very similar way to Summer. When questioned as to why he had killed Joanna, Rodriguez claimed that Joanna had raised her voice to him so he wrapped his hands around her neck and choked her. Prosecutors offered Rodriguez a plea deal wherein he could escape the death penalty if he pled guilty to the murder of both women, but, bizarrely, Rodriguez refused at the last minute.
Unfortunately for Joanna’s family only certain events of Joanna’s case could be used in this phase of the trial. These included Joanna’s father, Joe Bill Rogers, taking the stand to talk about the last night he saw his daughter, and an FBI against who confirmed that Rodriguez had called Joanna twice on the night of her murder. A Lubbock officer was also allowed to reveal that Rodriguez had spent time searching online for articles about both Summer and Joanna, and that he had even downloaded some pictures of Joanna from the articles.
Rodriguez’s family also took the stand to give testimony to the Rosendo they knew and loved. His father gave testimony to the accuracy of the claims of his being a violent and alcohol dependent father who created a childhood of fear for his son. Rodriguez’s sister and aunt also stood up to defend her brother, and Rodriguez’s aunt recalled during her testimony that Rodriguez had announced to the family, at the age of 14, that he would one day be the first Latino President of the United States.
But, Rodriguez’s mother thought back fondly on the early years of her son’s life, remembering how respectful of a child he was. She also talked about Rodriguez’s own son, who he rarely saw, but she claimed he loved. This testimony from his mother was the first thing during the entire proceedings that seemed to distress Rodriguez, and he stood up and called out to his mother before being restrained by bailiffs.
The Sentencing
Rosendo Rodriguez was sentenced to death. However, per any death penalty case, he was allowed a number of appeals before the sentence was carried out, so he spent years on death row awaiting his punishment.
In February of 2018, one month before the finalized date of his execution, Rodriguez asked for a stay of execution citing supposed evidence that the medical examiner may not have performed the autopsy after Summer’s death. The claim originated during a 2015 lawsuit in which the medical examiner was accused of routinely leaving the examiner’s office to take care of his own personal medical practice, and that he regularly delegated the examinations to his senior forensic nurse. The case accused the doctor of not even performing his own claimed autopsies in some cases. Eventually the case was settled for $200,000, but Lubbock County District Attorney Matt Powell said that there was no Brady information contained in the suit that could relate to Rodriguez’s case in particular.
Rodriguez was then once again sentenced to death which was scheduled for March 27, 2018. In 2018, three other inmates had already been executed in Texas, making Rodriguez the fourth in line for the death chamber in the Lone Star State in 2018.
During his incarceration Rodriguez was featured in a blog post on the American blog Minutes to Six which shared various works of art, poetry, and articles from inmates. Rodriguez’s piece is titled “A Tale of Two Prisons: Retribution Versus Rehabilitation & What America Can Learn from Germany” and discusses the differences between the American and Germanic prison systems. Rodriguez discussed how the prison system of Germany focuses on the humans imprisoned and their rights and wellbeing versus the American method of what Rodriguez identified as vengeful and punitive. He cited the 1944 Violent Crime and Law Enforcement Act, better known as the Crime Bill, which allowed and encouraged states to create more laws to increase the number of incarcerated beings, bringing in more income for the state and providing economic stability for many small towns for which prisons are the major source of jobs. Rodriguez’s article is surprisingly well thought out and well written, making a decent argument for his case, but it was not enough to sway anyone in his own case or change the outcome of his sentence.
Rosendo Rodriguez III’s final appeal to the US Supreme Court was denied minutes before his execution, and he was put to death by lethal injection on March 27, 2018, the day after his thirty-eighth birthday. When allowed his final words Rodriguez used the platform to reference bible verse two Timothy 4:7: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” Rodriguez also said “The state may have my body but they never had my soul…Warden, I’m ready to join my father.” He also, strangely, encouraged everyone to boycott all businesses in Texas, stating that putting pressure on the businesses to stop the death penalty was the only way to stop the practice in the state.
Rodriguez died at 6:46pm, 22 minutes after he received a lethal dose of pentobarbital, securing his place as the fourth person to be executed in Texas that year, and the seventh in the nation.
References
“Bible Gateway Passage: 2 Timothy 4:7-8 – New International Version.” Bible Gateway, http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Timothy+4%3A7-8&version=NIV.
Blakinger, Keri. “’Suitcase Killer’ asks for stay citing lawsuit, $230,000 settlement against medical examiner.” Houston Chronicle. 21 February, 2018. https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Suitcase-Killer-asks-for-stay-citing-12631074.php
“Execution List 2018.” Death Penalty Information Center. (n.d.) Death Penalty Info. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/2018
Graczyk, Michael. “Man who stuffed Lubbock woman’s body into luggage set to die.” AP News. 26 March, 2018. https://apnews.com/article/4f08940bf25b451a89b44e81538b00dd
Harrison, Emily. “Decade after her murder, Summer Baldwin’s life coming to light with new photos and documents.” Everything Lubbock. 29 March, 2019. https://www.everythinglubbock.com/news/klbk-news/decade-after-her-murder-summer-baldwins-life-coming-to-light-with-new-photos-and-documents/
“Last words of a killer: Texas executes man who stuffed woman’s body into luggage.” ABC 13, Texas News. 28 March, 2018. https://abc13.com/last-words-of-killer-executed-for-stuffing-womans-body-in-suitcase/3272697/
“Marine Corps Reservist Rosendo Rodriguez Murdered Summer Baldwin and Unborn Child; Sentenced to Death in Texas.” Military Justice for All. 13 September, 2005. https://militaryjusticeforall.com/tag/summer-lee-baldwin/
Monte, Gabriel. “Execution stay chances wither for Lubbock’s ‘suitcase killer’.” Lubbock Avalanche Journal. 24 March, 2018. https://www.lubbockonline.com/news/20180324/execution-stay-chances-wither-for-lubbocks-suitcase-killer
Mccullough, Jolie. “Texas executes Lubbock ‘suitcase killer’.”Texas Tribune. 27 March, 2018. https://www.texastribune.org/2018/03/27/lubbocks-suitcase-killer-fights-upcoming-execution/#:~:text=Rosendo%20Rodriguez%20was%20executed%20Tuesday,sexually%20assaulted%20before%20her%20death.
N., Matt. “Suitcase Killer” ROSENDO Rodriguez’s Chilling Last Words. Law and Crime. 28 Mar. 2018, lawandcrime.com/crazy/the-suitcase-killers-has-chilling-last-words-before-execution/#:~:text=Convicted%20killer%20Rosendo%20Rodriguez%20III,ready%20to%20join%20my%20father.%E2%80%9D.
Rodriguez, Rosendo. “A Tale of Two Prisons: Retribution Versus Rehabilitation & What America Can Learn from Germany.” Minutes Before Six, 1 Jan. 1970, minutesbeforesix.blogspot.com/search/label/Rosendo%20Rodriguez%20%28TX%29.
Sander, Shaley. “‘She deserved to live’ – Remembering Summer Baldwin, 13 years after her murder.” KCBD News. 26 March, 2018. https://www.kcbd.com/story/37805558/she-deserved-to-live-remembering-summer-baldwin-13-years-after-her-murder/
Sanders, Shaley. “Remembering murdered teen, 16-year-old Joanna Rogers.” KCBD 11. 26 March, 2018. https://www.kcbd.com/story/37805479/remembering-murdered-teen-16-year-old-joanna-rogers/
“Summer Lee Baldwin.” Find a Grave. (n.d.). Findagrave.com. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/34874336/summer-lee-baldwin
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