By  Seamus McGraw

August 30, 2006

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FARGO, N.D. (Crime Library) —  A federal jury in Fargo is expected to begin its first full day of deliberations today in the case of Alfonso Rodriguez, the 53-year-old Minnesota sex offender charged with kidnapping and murdering 22-year-old co-ed Dru Sjodin in 2003. Her decomposing, partially nude body was found months later in a ravine not far from Rodriguez's Crookston, Minn., home, but miles from the Grand Forks, N.D., mall where she was abducted.

Alfonzo Rodriguez, Jr.

In what published reports have described as a sometimes emotionally charged closing statement, Drew Wrigley, U.S. attorney for North Dakota, recounted the evidence prosecutors had presented with 52 witnesses, arguing that bloodstains found in Rodriguez's car, along with other forensic evidence, clearly pointed to his guilt.

Dru Sjodin

"The blood in Alfonso Rodriguez's car was Dru's voice shouting out, 'I was here, I was forced here,'" the prosecutor told jurors on Tuesday; according to published reports. "That girl fought; she's right here with all of us today. You can feel her strength. It's in the evidence and it's calling out to tell us what he did."

The defense, which presented only one witness during the trial, has never directly challenged the prosecution's assertion that Rodriguez was responsible for Dru's death. Instead they have focused on the legal question of whether Rodriguez should be tried in federal court, where he faces the death penalty if convicted, or in state court, where he would be spared death but could face life in prison.

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