Following a fatal drug deal-turned-robbery and shooting in Orem two years ago, the second of two Spanish Fork brothers involved in the killing of one teenager and the injury of two others has pleaded guilty to the crimes.

After his older brother Sidney Rodriguez pleaded guilty to reduced charges of manslaughter and aggravated robbery on Aug. 10, Andre Rodriguez pleaded guilty Monday to a reduced charge of murder, a second-degree felony; aggravated robbery, a first-degree felony; and discharge of a firearm, a second-degree felony.

According to police accounts of the events, on June 2, 2021, the two brothers and a driver who reportedly was unaware of the plan met up with a car of four juvenile victims in a church parking lot in Orem for a drug deal. Andre Rodruiguez was 16 at the time of the robbery but is now 18 years old.

Sidney Rodriguez was in the victims’ car negotiating the drug exchange when Andre Rodriguez came to the window with a rifle and demanded the victims give him the drugs and money. The charging documents state, “The victims tried to reason with Andre Rodriguez. Andre Rodriguez repeated that he would shoot the victims if they would not comply with his commands.”

Sidney Rodriguez admitted to the police that he and Andre had planned the robbery before going to the drug deal.

The police arrest report for Andre Rodriguez said Sidney told officers “this wasn’t supposed to go down this way and no one was supposed to get hurt then blames the victims for grabbing the gun which caused shots to be fired. The way that Sydney (sic) stated this, indicated that this was a planned robbery that wasn’t supposed to end with someone getting hurt.”

When Andre Rodriguez pointed the rifle into the car, one or more of the victims attempted to wrestle the gun away from him, resulting in at least one shot being fired, injuring two victims, one being 16-year-old Camden Hales. A different juvenile victim burned his hands on the barrel of the rifle in the process.

The rifle was wrestled away from Andre Rodriguez and fell into the victims car, where another shot was fired as Sidney Rodriguez attempted to fight for control of the rifle, the charging documents state.

When the shot inside the car was fired, Andre Rodriguez pulled a 9 mm pistol from his waistband and fired shots at the victim’s car. The driver backed up the car to try to escape, and in the process of the victims trying to flee, Sidney Rodriguez exited the vehicle in possession of the rifle.

Andre Rodriguez continued to fire rounds at the victims’ car as it was leaving the scene, resulting in Hales being struck in the neck and later dying from his wounds. The two other victims who were shot were taken to the hospital for treatment while the fourth occupant in the vehicle did not have any gunshot wounds or injuries other than the burns on his hands.

According to charging documents, Sidney Rodriguez admitted that the guns were brought since they planned to take the drugs without giving up their money. “Sidney stated that if the victims would have refused to hand over the drugs and money at gunpoint, he would have physically assaulted the victims,” it states.

The same night, Andre Rodriguez called the police station to inform officers he was going to turn himself in. He then went to the police station with his mother, who relayed to the officers everything she had been told about the shooting. Sidney Rodriguez also was located and arrested that night.

The guns used in the shooting were never found, but according to a police probable cause statement, “The suspects later drove to Lincoln Beach and threw the guns into Utah Lake.”

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