MIDLAND Midland County District Attorney Laura Nodolf announced in a news release that a 32-year-old Midland man was sentenced on Wednesday to a term of life in prison without the possibility of parole, after a Midland County jury found him guilty of capital murder.
According to the release, Raven Robert Rodriguez was charged in case number CR58822 in two counts, Count I of Capital Murder and Count II of Murder. After hearing evidence Monday afternoon and Tuesday, the jury found Rodriguez guilty after less than two hours of deliberating. After the jury returned their guilty verdict, the defendant was sentenced to life without parole in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice since the death penalty had previously been waived by the state.
The evidence presented in the case showed that in the early morning hours of December 8, 2022, the defendant broke into the hotel room of his ex-girlfriend, Mariela Lozano, and chased her onto the balcony of the Homewood Suites in Midland County. The defendant proceeded to stab the victim more than twenty times before fleeing the scene. Surveillance footage captured the murder and break-in in its entirety. The defendant was apprehended by the Midland Police Department K-9 Unit days later. Evidence also showed there was a history of domestic violence between the couple, who had been together for nearly thirteen years and shared five children together. The evidence showed that the couple had broken up several days before the murder.
In Texas, capital murder is the highest level of felony recognized and the penalties are either death or life without parole. The state waived the death penalty in Rodriguez’s case in March of 2023 and the only option for punishment with a conviction of capital murder was life without parole.
The case was prosecuted by Midland County Assistant District Attorneys Lauren Gavin and Kane Handford. Rodriguez was represented by Midland attorney Paul Williams. The trial was held in the 238th District Court and presided over by Judge Elizabeth Byer Leonard.
For more information contact Assistant District Attorney Tim Flathers at 688-4427.
