Attorney for alleged 'Kensington strangler' argues to get statement tossed

AFTER PHILADELPHIA police arrested Antonio Rodriguez last year on suspicion that he was the "Kensington Strangler," he made three chilling and depraved statements.

Rodriguez, 23, described how he choked his three female victims while having sex, how he continued having sex with their lifeless bodies after he had strangled them and how he posed their partially clothed remains before fleeing each crime scene in late 2010.

When homicide detective James Pitts asked Rodriguez why he didn't turn himself in, the defendant responded, "Because I knew I strangled those women," according to one of the statements, which Pitts read in court Monday.

Despite what Rodriguez told detectives, his attorney, William Bowe, said none of it should be allowed into his nonjury trial, which is to begin Tuesday.

During a motion hearing Monday, Bowe asked Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart to suppress the statements on the grounds that Rodriguez did not give them voluntarily.

Two detectives who questioned Rodriguez - Pitts and Omar Jenkins - were questioned by Bowe and Assistant District Attorney Carlos Vega.

Both detectives said they informed Rodriguez of his rights before he voluntarily gave the statements. He was given takeout food and cigarettes during the questioning process and was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs, the detectives said.

Pitts said DNA evidence linked Rodriguez to the victims. Elaine Goldberg, 21, and Nicole Piacentini, 35, were found strangled 10 days apart in November 2010 and Casey Mahoney, 27, was found strangled the next month.

Rodriguez told detectives that he didn't know the women, whom he described as prostitutes he'd met on Kensington streets. After meeting each, he said, he went with them to secluded places where they had sex and he killed them.

Bowe pressed Pitts on the fact that police arrested Rodriguez Jan. 17, 2011, before they had a signed arrest warrant, which they got later that day.

"We're not going to sit idly by," Pitts responded, noting that Rodriguez had been linked to the crimes that morning via a DNA database.

If convicted of the murders, Rodriguez would receive life in state prison without parole. In exchange for giving up his right to be tried by a jury, the D.A.'s Office took the death penalty off the table, Vega said.