A man who fatally shot a drug-addict young mother after confronting her about a rape and drug story was sentenced Wednesday to 100 years to life in state prison.
Jeffrey McCreary, 45, was convicted with 38-year-old Destin Lee Withers of first-degree murder in the February 2012 death of 20-year-old Denise Rodriguez, who had an 11-month-old daughter.
Deputy District Attorney Jodi Breton said Rodriguez — a drug addict with no permanent residence — told people two days before she was killed that a man she met at an apartment complex raped her and gave her bad drugs.
Withers tried to help find the man who supposedly hurt Rodriguez, but when he found out the story wasn’t true, he and McCreary picked her up at a motel, Breton said.
While awaiting trial, Withers told a fellow inmate that Rodriguez was trying to get out of the car when she was shot four times by McCreary, according to court testimony. The victim’s body was dumped along a road north of Escondido.
Withers’ attorney argued that his client did not know that McCreary was going to shoot Rodriguez.
Withers was sentenced in November to 33 years to life in prison. He still faces a murder charge in the February 2008 shooting death of a 28-year- old man outside a tavern in Lakeside.
McCreary has prior convictions for armed robbery, drug possessions and buying stolen goods, Breton said.
—City News Service
