Boxer Felix Verdejo sentenced to two consecutive terms of life in prison after being found guilty of the murder of his pregnant girlfriend Keishla Rodriguez in Puerto Rico

Former Olympic boxer Felix Verdejo will serve two consecutive life sentences in federal prison for the murder of his girlfriend Keishla Rodriguez Ortiz and her unborn child.

He was officially sentenced on Friday after being found guilty of the crimes by a jury of his colleagues in Puerto Rico in July this year.

Just before the verdict was handed down, the judge in the case said that Verdejo “ended the lives of two people. He did it in a horrible way…

“The level of cruelty has only added to the tragedy that led to these unfortunate events. Those lives, as well as those of the family, are forever changed. There’s no way to go back on this.’

Because Verdejo is ordered to serve his time in a federal prison, he will not be able to serve part of his sentence on parole.

Keishla Rodríguez was pregnant with a child with Puerto Rican boxer Félix Verdejo. She met him outside her home on April 27, 2021 to show him the results that she was expecting a baby and was attacked by the former world champion in his car before being drugged and dumped in a lagoon in San Juan. Her body was recovered on May 1, 2021.

In July, he was found guilty of both murders, but the court disagreed on two other charges Verdejo faced: carjacking resulting in the death of a person and possession/use of a firearm in the commission of a crime.

When the verdict was announced in July, the deceased’s parents – Jose Antonio Rodriguez and Keila Ortiz – felt justice had been served and hope the murder of their daughter Verdejo will be remembered forever.

“I was thinking a lot of things in my head, but not in my heart,” Mr. Rodriguez said. “I got up every day to come here with the intention of making her count.

‘I have always said that he will spend the rest of his life thinking about what he did to my daughter, and that is his worst sentence. I don’t wish him death, I wish him good health and that he last as long as he can… if he wants to last for two hundred years, let him continue, but always remember what he did to my daughter .’

Ms. Ortiz emphasized, “Justice has been done for my daughter and my grandson, they have done justice for both of them because they are two lives.

‘Keishla was sitting on the (right) bench with her baby. I don’t think the verdict will be overturned. This was a macabre murder.”

A jury of three women and nine men had been deliberating since Tuesday afternoon in a trial that lasted a total of 25 days through Friday.

The body of 27-year-old Rodriguez Ortiz was found on May 1, 2021, in a lagoon in Puerto Rico’s capital San Juan.

Keishla Rodríguez was reported missing on April 29 after failing to get to work at a pet grooming salon and being found dead in a lagoon in Puerto Rico two days later.

Her murder occurred two days earlier, when the victim’s mother reported her disappearance after failing to show up for work.

According to a court document reviewed by DailyMail.com, Verdejo, also 27, contacted an accomplice Luis Antonio Cádiz on April 27, 2021, offering to pay him so he could help terminate Rodríguez’s pregnancy.

Cadiz was also charged with crimes in connection with this case, but he reached a plea deal with the prosecutor in exchange for his testimony.

On the morning of April 29, Rodríguez contacted her mother, Keila Ortiz, to inform her that she would meet Verdejo at her home to present him with the results of a blood test that confirmed she was pregnant.

The mother warned her that Verdejo was dangerous and claimed he had threatened her in the past because she would not go through with his desire to terminate the pregnancy.

Instead of going to her apartment alone, Verdejo was accompanied by Cádiz and met Rodríguez outside her residence where she boarded the boxer’s SUV.

Verdejo, who had a friendship with Rodríguez dating back to their high school days, punched her in the face and then injected her with an unknown substance he bought from drug dealers in the Luis Llorens Torres housing complex in Santurce, Cádiz told the FBI.

Verdejo and Cádiz then allegedly used wires to tie her hands and ankles and attached a concrete block to her.

Keishla Rodríguez was expecting a baby with Puerto Rican boxer Félix Verdejo, whom she had been friends with since high school

They later drove towards the Teodoro Moscoso Bridge and dumped Rodríguez’s body in the San José Lagoon at about 8:30 am. Cadíz told the FBI that Verdejo stood on the bridge and used his gun to shoot Rodríguez.

Verdejo, who represented Puerto Rico at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, was charged with using and carrying a firearm during and in connection with a crime of violence. He pleaded not guilty to the charges. As a result of the conviction, he could face the death penalty.

A judge approved a request from federal prosecutors and denied bail for both suspects.

Rodríguez’s death sparked protests in Puerto Rico, where a state of emergency was declared in January over the deep-rooted problem of violence against women.

As reported in 2021, the island experienced sustained levels of violence that on average result in the death of one woman per week, according to a 2019 report by the nonprofits Proyecto Matria and Kilometro Cero, mirroring a problem in other Caribbean and Latin American countries. .