Sacto 9-1-1: Cal honors student who was slain in Oak Park

Sign In
Join

Logout

Sacto 9-1-1

The Sacramento Bee's Crime blog is a comprehensive report of crime news, trends and information for your community and beyond.

October 10, 2008

Cal honors student who was slain in Oak Park

From Bill Lindelof:

A UC Berkeley student who was killed outside an Oak Park barbershop will be honored today with a "memorial certificate" in lieu of a degree in recognition of the young man's academic accomplishments.

Rodrigo "Rod" Rodriguez Jr. (right photo), 21, was killed in Sept. 16, 2007, outside the barbershop where he worked as an apprentice barber while on break from UC Berkeley, which he attended on a prestigious Buck scholarship.

Police say the killers were targeting someone else for whom they mistook Rodriguez. One man has been arrested in connection with the homicide.

University of California regents will honor Rodriguez today in a ceremony on campus at UC Berkeley's School of Business. His parents will be present.

H. Faye Lawson, student advocate of Student Services at the Haas School of Business, said Rodriguez was a dynamic student who left an indelible memory of his strength and optimism with people he met.

"His legacy as a student and as a young man compelled this recognition of his work toward a Berkeley degree," Lawson said in a statement.

In addition to the recognition from the regents, his parents will receive an award from the University of Rochester. Rodriguez earned the Rochester award in 2002 when he was a student enrolled in the Mathematics, Engineering, Science and Liberal Arts (MESL) Honors Academy at the former Sacramento High School. He never received the actual award and certificate.

The award recognizes academic and extracurricular achievement, according to Jean Crowder, MESL director.

About Comments

Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.

What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com

Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)

Here are some rules of the road:

• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "report abuse" button to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.

• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.

• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.

• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand. If you want to discuss an issue with a specific user, click on his profile name and send him a direct message.

• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.

• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.

• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.

• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.

You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.

If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to feedback@sacbee.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.

Q: What happened to the killer of Martin Fischalek?

A: Robert Doyle Bratton was sentenced on Jan. 3, 1990, to 25 years to life in prison for the slaying of Martin Fischalek, according to Sacramento Superior Court records.

A Sacramento Superior Court on jury on Aug. 18, 1989, convicted Bratton on four murder and robbery charges in the slaying of Fischalek, his 59-year-old neighbor.

Fischalek was beaten and stabbed to death during a robbery in his Vista Avenue home in south Sacramento County.

Bratton was 17 when the crimes occurred Aug. 2, 1988, but was ordered to be tried as an adult because of the nature of the crimes. Although the charges[ included the special circumstances required for a capital-punishment case, Bratton was protected by law from the capital charges faced by an adult.

During the two-week trial, the prosecution painted a picture of a ruthless killer who needed drug money and ended up beating Fischalek with the leg of a wooden chair and slashing his throat with a kitchen knife. The dead man's stereo, wallet and car were taken.

Fischalek's body was found Aug. 4, 1988, by two of his fellow mechanics who went to check on him when he failed to show up for work at the Niello auto dealerships on Arden Way.

Perhaps the most crucial evidence against Bratton was a tape recording of a conversation he had with a man who struck a deal with investigators to tape his meeting with the suspect.

The jury listened to the recorded discussion of details Williamson described as things that could be known only by the killer.

213 questions answered | Submit a question