WORCESTER, Mass. — The suspect in the killings of a mother and daughter in Worcester in late August is expected to face a judge on Friday afternoon.
William Rodriguez, 59, is slated to be arraigned in Worcester District Court at 2 p.m. on two counts of armed assault to murder in connection with the Aug. 25 murders of 76-year-old Sergia Acosta and her 58-year-old daughter, Ana Maria Martinez, a spokesperson for the Worcester District Attorney’s Office told Boston 25 News.
Court officials initially said Rodriguez would appear “some time” on Thursday afternoon but later shifted the arraignment to Friday.
Rodriguez was arrested by law enforcement officials in the Bronx, New York, on Aug. 29 and had been in custody awaiting return to Massachusetts.
Officers responding to a report of a double stabbing at the Webster Square Towers on Main Street on Sunday, Aug. 25, found the two women dead in an apartment.
Rodriquez was in a relationship with Ana Maria for about a year, Boston 25′s Bob Ward reported.
While investigators weren’t initially able to track Rodriquez down, court records revealed that police did locate a note in his apartment written in Spanish that read, “Women who make mistakes will receive what is coming.”
The murders of Sergia Costa and Ana Maria Martinez come twenty years after Rodriguez was arrested for the stabbing death of his wife, Carmen Rodriguez, at a Worcester hotel where they both worked.
In 2018 the Massachusetts Parole Board granted Rodriguez parole, finding, “It appears that he accepts full responsibility for his actions resulting in the death of his estranged wife.”
The board recommended GPS monitoring, a curfew, and evaluations for mental health and substance abuse. Just a few years later, Rodriquez is suspected in two more killings.
Rodriquez was eligible for parole because, in the case of his wife’s murder, the Worcester DA’s office accepted a guilty plea for manslaughter, instead of first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence with no parole.
Just weeks before her death, Carmen Rodriguez took out a restraining order against William writing, “He will kill me, and I am afraid of him.”
Court documents show Rodriguez’s lawyer, citing Rodriguez’s heroin use, was planning to mount an insanity defense.
An investigation into the deadly stabbing is ongoing.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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