An Idaho man will spend the rest of his life behind bars after killing a local tattoo artist during a carjacking.
Kaden Thomson was sentenced to a life term in prison with the possibility of parole by a Twinn County judge for the shooting death of 32-year-old Freddy Rodriguez. A jury convicted Thomson of first-degree murder three months after his co-defendant, Mi’Quavis Taylor, was convicted and sentenced to 35 years in prison.
On Nov 16, 2023, Thomson and Taylor had been on a carjacking spree when they zeroed in on Rodriguez’s van. As the duo tried to steal the vehicle, the victim attempted to scare both men off his premises when Thomson shot Rodriguez multiple times.
During the trial, prosecutors submitted to the jury interrogation video footage that showed Taylor describing the events that followed the fatal incident.
“He gets in like what the f--- happened? What happened? He’s like I think I killed him, I let off 6 or 5 shots,” said Taylor to investigators, according to MSN.
In addition, prosecutors informed the jury about the defendant’s criminal history, which showed Thomson's lengthy criminal history from being a juvenile and committed the homicide three months after his release from prison.
Thomson, with teary eyes, apologized to the victim’s family, but in a rebuttal, prosecutors submitted to the court a jail video call that showed the defendant laughing with friends about the 13 felonies he was charged with. Hence, they argued that Thomson was not remorseful.
The victim’s family members believed the sentence was fair, considering they lost Rodriguez’s brother months after the victim’s demise.
“One day at a time, as cliche as that sounds, we celebrate him. We have to heal all over again because of the grief-- we had another loss in the family. Now my husband and his brother can rest in peace, and we’ll see him on the other side,” said Rodriguez’s wife during the victim impact statement, reported KMTV.
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