A judge sentenced a former Long Beach Unified School District school safety officer to three years in state prison for the shooting death of an 18-year-old woman in 2021, but the defendant walked out of the courthouse on credits for time served in county jail and ankle monitoring Tuesday, Oct. 8.
Eddie Francisco Gonzalez, 54, of Orange, was flanked by family, friends and supporters as he walked out of the courtroom, some of whom gasped when Judge Richard M. Goul imposed the three-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter.
Gonzalez, who will be on parole, put his hands on his head and dipped low upon hearing the sentence.
Gonzalez, originally charged with murder, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in August, admitting responsibility for the shooting of Manuela “Mona” Rodriguez after breaking up a fight between her and a then Millikan High School student on Sept. 27, 2021.
He spent about 10 months in jail before posting bond in July 2022 and had been on electric monitoring since.
Evidence presented during the trial in April showed Rodriguez, her boyfriend Rafeul Chowdhury and his younger brother drove toward the high school looking for the girl, who was 15 years old at the time. They fought along Palo Verde Avenue just south of Spring Street.
Goul said changes in the law require the judge to start with the lowest term and only consider longer sentences if aggravating factors outweigh mitigating factors, adding that the most aggravating factor was that Rodriguez was a particularly vulnerable victim.
“The defendant did not drive the actions of this case,” Goul said. “This was not a fight where he intervened, it was an attack. They attacked a high school student and dragged her in the street.”
The judge said the attack would have been worse had it not been for Gonzalez’s intervention and that Gonzalez attempted to stop the trio as he was “legally entitled to do.
“They did not stop,” Goul said. “If the driver had not made that choice, Manuela would still be alive today.”
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Outside the courtroom, Gonzalez’s attorney, Michael Schwartz, said everyone could agree it was a tragedy.
“The judge saw my client as an individual, not just the charges,” Schwartz said. “We’re grateful for that.”
Oscar Rodriguez, the victim’s brother, said he was at a loss for words outside the courtroom after the hearing.
“Everyone who heard this story knows the right thing should have been done and it wasn’t,” Oscar Rodriguez said. “I don’t get it.”
Gonzalez, wearing a blue suit, did not speak during the hearing and declined to comment outside the courtroom.
Gonzalez had been working with LBUSD for about nine months and was at the end of his shift for the day when he noticed Rodriguez and the girl fighting, with the Chowdhury brothers looking on. The fight and shooting were captured on surveillance cameras.
Upon Gonzalez’s arrival, Rodriguez, her boyfriend and her boyfriend’s teenage brother immediately walked back to her boyfriend’s car, where Rodriguez got in the driver’s seat. Gonzalez sat the teenager on the curb and went after the trio, drew his gun and slammed on the hood twice on the passenger side to get them to stop.
The boyfriend, Rafeul Chowdhury, put the car in drive, briefly turning toward Gonzalez, who took a step back, lifted the weapon and fired two shots from behind the car. One of the bullets went through the back right window, into the passenger seat headrest and hit Rodriguez in the back of the head.
She was taken off life support at a hospital a week after the shooting, which was captured on cell phone and surveillance video. Around the same date, Gonzalez was fired by LBUSD.
During trial, jurors were tasked with determining whether Gonzalez was in danger at the time he fired the shots. Prosecutors argued the danger had already passed when he fired from behind the car. His defense attorney, Michael Schwartz, disagreed.
Jurors hung and a mistrial was declared in April. The panel voted 7-5 in favor of guilt.
Schwartz told the jury Gonzalez had reason to detain Rodriguez, Chowdhury and his brother because the girl told him they stole her phone and threatened her. Prosecutors said Gonzalez “responded to youthful disobedience with deadly force.”
Attorneys on both sides called the case a tragedy all around. Prosecutor Lee Orquiola said the voluntary manslaughter deal was offered the deal so the family wouldn’t have to relive the case a second time.
In arguing for a six-year sentence, Orquiola said Gonzalez’s actions also endangered a grandmother and her two grandchildren who were nearby in the parking lot and the shooting occurred right after school got out for the day.
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Family members of Rodriguez said the family has been destroyed since the shooting.
Manuela Sahagun, Mona Rodriguez’s mother, said she struggles to see mothers with their children knowing her daughter is gone. She said her grandson has struggled so much without his mom.
“I don’t wish this pain on anyone, not even the person who killed my daughter,” Sahagun said. “This is a pain that I have that will never go away.”
Chowdhury, who drove the car that day with Rodriguez in the passenger seat and his younger brother in the backseat, said he was there to “get justice for my baby’s mother.”
He said Gonzalez “shot the person who was to be my future wife.”
Oscar Rodriguez said the shooting has deeply affected a prior desire to become a police officer.
“Since what happened to my sister, I can’t even look at a badge,” he said. “My dream of becoming an officer was crushed.”
Of his sister, Oscar Rodriguez said “she was an amazing person, she didn’t deserve what happened to her.”
Supporters of Gonzalez told the court he has a good heart and had aspirations of becoming a peace officer to help people.
Pastor Ken Chinn said Gonzalez has been a member of Calvary Chapel in Anaheim and took a job at the church after his release from jail to continue to support his family.
“This was a tragic case with a tragic loss to this family and he accepts full responsibility for that,” Chinn said.
Longtime friend Randy George said Gonzalez “only wanted to help people” and that he often talked about feeling very engaged and connected with students after taking the job at LBUSD.
“This man was broken,” George said. “He was just a man doing his job. They directed the violence and he was there to help (the student).
“He doesn’t deserve this,” George said.
Prior to working with LBUSD, Gonzalez worked for both the Los Alamitos and Sierra Madre police departments, but did not last a year with either agency.