Chicago man sentenced for shooting in Lake Station
By Ruth Ann KRause Post-Tribune correspondent June 20, 2012 2:40PM
Updated: June 20, 2012 8:13PM
A Chicago man on parole for less than one month when he was charged with attempted murder was sentenced in Lake Superior Court to 14 years in prison for a shooting at a Lake Station bar.
Arthur A. Rodriguez Jr., 25, admitted he shot Robert Edmond on Dec. 28, 2008, following a brief altercation inside the Hide-A-While Lounge on Central Avenue. Rodriguez retrieved a handgun, confronted Edmond just outside the bar and shot him in the left shoulder area and left flank.
Defense attorney Alger Boswell noted his client didn’t start the fight, which began after Rodriguez was talking to a woman who also knew the victim. Edmond sprayed a chemical spray in Rodriguez’s face. Rodriguez said he was then on the floor being punched.
Rodriguez told Lake Superior Court Judge pro tem Thomas Vanes he fired the gun wildly and only intended to scare Edmond.
“His conflict resolution was not what it should be,” Boswell said of Rodriguez.
Deputy prosecutor Mark Watson argued for the maximum 15-year sentence outlined in the plea agreement for aggravated battery, noting Rodriguez’s criminal history that includes two juvenile adjudications, one misdemeanor conviction and four prior felony convictions. Watson said that Rodriguez, as a convicted felon, shouldn’t have had a gun in the first place.
Vanes cited Rodriguez’s criminal record as a weighty aggravating factor and noted he was on parole 28 days before he was involved in the shooting, which originally was charged as attempted murder.
Rodriguez apologized to Edmond, who was not present in court.
