An ex-Riverside County sheriff’s deputy who tried to arrest — but then killed — a man over conflicts stemming from their attachments to the same woman was sentenced on Tuesday, Sept. 23, to a year in jail and 10 years of probation.
An Indio jury in June convicted Oscar Rodriguez, 44, of voluntary manslaughter for the 2014 slaying of Luis Carlos Morin, 39, of Coachella. Jurors acquitted Rodriguez of first-degree murder.
During Tuesday’s hearing at the Larson Justice Center in Indio, Superior Court Judge Otis Sterling heard victim-impact statements, as well as arguments from the prosecution and the defense, regarding the most appropriate sentence for the shooting.
Despite prosecutors’ objections, Sterling handed down a sentence of 10 years in state prison, which he immediately suspended i