OC man admits to 2 freeway BB shootings in 2021, gets 10 years

An Anaheim resident linked to some of the BB gun shootings that terrorized drivers on Southern California freeways in 2021 pleaded guilty Monday to three felony charges and was sentenced to 10 years in state prison.

Jesse Leal Rodriguez, 35, who had steadfastly maintained his innocence in a jailhouse interview with the Southern California News Group not long after his arrest, admitted to three counts of assault with a deadly weapon in Riverside County Superior Court in a plea deal with the district attorney's office.

Those three counts were tied to two shootings on the 91 Freeway in Riverside and one in Norco on a surface street.

He had been charged with three counts of attempted murder as well as six other felony assault counts tied to the three shootings. He faced a maximum sentence of 21 years if convicted on those charges, said John Hall, a DA'S spokesman.

Judge Sean Crandell could have sentenced Rodriguez to as much as 14 years on the new charges Monday.

In April and May 2021, the windows of about 100 vehicles were damaged, mostly on the 91 Freeway

in Corona, Riverside, Anaheim and Cerritos. No serious injury was reported.

Still, motorists were on edge. In April 2021, Christina Martinez Adame of Los Alamitos was driving on the 405 Freeway near Seal Beach Boulevard close to the Orange County/los Angeles County border when she believed her rear window was shot out.

“You had glass coming into the car, the power of the wind going through,” she said shortly after. “I felt like our car was caving in.

“Every day,” she said, “somebody is telling me, `This happened to so-and-so.' `It happened to me.' `It happened to another parent.' ”

Lisa Sanford of Corona was driving on the 15 Freeway in Norco in March 2021 when her car was struck eight times. One window of her SUV shattered.

“I was in shock,” she said not

long after. “I was freaking out.”

In response, the California Highway Patrol boosted its freeway presence.

A break in the case came May 25, 2021. First, a motorist reported a passengerside window was shot out on the 91 near Tyler Street and saw a maroon Chevrolet Trailblazer behind her and to her right.

Later that day, at about 1:30 p.m., a Tesla’s camera system filmed a maroon Chevrolet Trailblazer at about the time the Tesla’s rear window was shot out near Hamner Avenue and Hidden Valley Parkway in Norco. The victim in the 91 shooting identified the Trailblazer filmed by the Tesla as the one she saw.

Then May 26 at about 9:30 p.m., the CHP received reports of motorists’ windows being shot out near the 91 and Tyler. Riverside police and CHP officers, armed with a description of the vehicle — a red SUV with no license plates — found the car at a Magnolia Avenue shopping center and apprehended Rodriguez.

Inside the car, they found a BB gun and ammunition.

“Not one person has reported that they saw me shoot,” Rodriguez said during the jailhouse interview in May 2021, rapping his fingers on the glass partition for emphasis. He said he had the gun after taking it away from his son. “I didn’t do any of them.”

Although Rodriguez was charged in only three shootings, a California Highway Patrol investigator said in court documents that the officer believed he was responsible for at least seven others.

The DA’S office declined to comment on any crimes on which it did not file charges.