ORLANO, Fla. — A man who was found dead inside a North Florida prison cell, after being convicted in a deadly downtown shooting in 2009, committed suicide, according to an autopsy report released Tuesday.
Jason Rodriguez was convicted of shooting and killing Otis Beckford and wounding five others at Orlando's Gateway Building in 2009.
The report said that Rodriguez’s cause of death was “multiple drug toxicity.” He was found dead on April 5.
His conviction was overturned last year by a three-judge 5th District Court of Appeal panel, which concluded that the jury was told to consider instructions that were applicable only to cases that occurred before June 2000.
The panel ruled that former Judge Belvin Perry, who is now a legal analyst for WFTV, made a mistake when he allowed prosecutors to put information in the jury instructions about Rodriguez’s hallucinations.
Rodriguez eventually pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and five counts of attempted murder.
He was sentenced in December to 30 years behind bars and then incarcerated at Columbia Correctional Institution-Annex.
Cox Media Group
