CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — A police arrest affidavit obtained by KRIS 6 News offers new details about the June 8 confrontation that left one man dead and another charged with murder in Corpus Christi — including the suspect's claim of self-defense, which detectives wrote they did not find credible.
Manuel Anthony Rodriguez, 41, is charged with murder, a first-degree felony, in the man's death.
An officer was dispatched about 7:39 p.m. June 8 to a home in the 900 block of Bloomington Street for a reported disturbance, according to the affidavit. Officers found the man unresponsive on the ground and began CPR until medics arrived, the document states. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The affidavit notes officers observed an injury to the back of his head.
Rodriguez, who was detained nearby, told police he acted in self-defense, according to the affidavit. He said he had known the other man for about two years and that the two had walked to a nearby store before the confrontation, the document states. Rodriguez gave shifting accounts of how the fight started, the affidavit says, but described slamming the man to the ground and pressing his right forearm against the man's neck for about a minute until the man stopped moving. Rodriguez then ran to a home on Valdez Street, where officers later contacted him, according to the document.
Detectives wrote that Rodriguez's statements were inconsistent and that he reported injuries officers could not observe, according to the affidavit. The document states Rodriguez admitted drinking and using methamphetamine earlier that day, told detectives he wanted the man to pass out by applying pressure to his neck, and told other people after leaving the scene that he had killed him. Detectives wrote that Rodriguez did not indicate his life had been in danger, the affidavit says. He was arrested on a murder charge June 9.
Rodriguez was treated for a broken forearm, but hospital staff and doctors said the injury was not caused by the fight and predated it, according to the affidavit.
