Defense attorney calls the killings a 'spontaneous event' Godinez could not have foreseen; prosecutor says Godinez was 'a willing participant'
NEWARK — Both sides in the Newark schoolyard trial agree on one thing: Rodolfo Godinez was drinking beer on Aug. 4, 2007, when four college-aged friends entered the Mount Vernon School playground.
But what Godinez did after a precise moment that night — 11:30 p.m., and 49 seconds — remains in dispute. At that time, Terrance Aeriel sent a worried text message to his sister. Minutes later, he and two of his friends were killed.
Today, during more than four hours of closing statements, the lawyers in the triple murder case outlined opposing versions of Godinez’s role that night.
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Pacing before the jury of 16, Roy Greenman, Godinez’s attorney, disagreed. He called his client a helpless witness who had nothing to do with lining Aeriel, 18, Iofemi Hightower, 19, and Dashon Harvey, 20, against a wall and then shooting them.
Calling the killings a "spontaneous event" Godinez could not have foreseen, Greenman noted that four cold beer bottles were found at the scene of the crime.
"Who would bring sweating bottles of beer to a pre-planned robbery and then leave them there?" Greenman asked. "That makes no sense."
Godinez, now 26, has pleaded not guilty to several counts of robbery, murder and weapons charges. He is the first of six defendants charged in triple killing. The others will be tried separately.
Greenman and McTigue reviewed the graphic details of the slayings before a packed and emotionally charged courtroom.
James Harvey, Dashon’s father, broke down in tears and wiped his face when McTigue spoke of his son’s final day. Shalga Hightower rocked back and forth and bit her lip when the assistant prosecutor showed an autopsy photo of her daughter, Iofemi.
"Remember, Mr. Godinez says he’s just a witness, he’s just casually observing this," McTigue said, as he held a blood-stained machete he said was used to slash Hightower. "Just watching? Those blows were all pre-mortem."
To prove Godinez played an active role in the killings, McTigue pointed to the 55-minute statement Godinez made to detectives shortly after he was arrested. In it, Godinez boasts of his "big homie" rank in the MS-13 street gang and admits he picked up some items stolen from the victims.
"There was only one person who knew the caliber of the gun right away," McTigue said, referring to the .357 Colt Trooper used to shoot all four victims. "Rodolfo Godinez; he discussed it in that statement."
But Greenman dismissed the tape, which was recorded at 3:30 in the morning, as the tired ramblings of a scared young man with limited intelligence.
"The state has to show he shared the same purpose as the actual perpetrators," Greenman told the jurors. "That’s why I bring in his low IQ and drinking. You have to determine his state of mind."
Greenman also questioned the credibility of a number of witnesses, including Natasha Aeriel, the sole survivor of the attack. He noted Aeriel never identified Godinez when detectives handed her a photo array while she was recuperating in a hospital.
"She looks, makes absolutely no identification, not even says, ‘Looks like him, resembles him.’ Nothing," he said.
The jury will begin deliberations this morning after hearing instructions from the judge.
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