TITUSVILLE, Fla. – An armed kidnapping and carjacking suspect found himself in even more trouble with the law this week.
Convicted felon Dax Rodriguez faced a Brevard County judge again Wednesday as charges against the 52-year-old continued to mount.
Rodriguez was arrested last Wednesday after Titusville police ended a high-speed pursuit with a PIT maneuver. The suspect had used a gun to threaten a woman who tried to break up with him via text inside her home and then stole another victim’s vehicle to flee authorities prior to his arrest, police said.
Now, since he’s been in jail, the sheriff’s office said Dax Rodriguez broke a no contact order by communicating with his ex-girlfriend he planned to kidnap and kill her for breaking up with him. Law enforcement also determined he planned to kill the woman’s sister and brother-in-law and his ex-wife.
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Judge Thomas Brown revoked his bond.
“He’s in jail, can’t follow the court orders,” Brown said. “Too much of a risk. I’m not going to take a chance of (Rodriguez) getting out of custody.”
Before the chase and crash, the sheriff’s office said that the ex-girlfriend escaped Dax Rodriguez by running to a neighbor’s house on Willis Drive to call 911.
Janet Rodriguez is the suspect’s ex-wife and one of three other people Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said he planned to kill.
“He had plans,” she said. “And let me tell you, he would have done it.”
Until he crashed, the sheriff said Dax Rodriguez was also on his way to Seminole County to kidnap their two small children.
“Honestly, I’m grateful to God,” Janet Rodriguez said about still being alive. “God saved me and that brave girl saved me. She told the cops about what was happening.”
When Dax Rodriguez lived in New York, records show he spent two decades in prison in a murder case before being paroled.
Now, his ex-wife hopes Rodriguez spends the rest of his life behind bars.
“The man is pure, pure evil,” she said.
Rodriguez faces charges of robbery with a firearm, grand theft of a motor vehicle, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, fleeing with disregard to the safety of persons or property, petit theft between $100-$750, armed burglary of a conveyance, kidnapping, violation of probation, fleeing/eluding law enforcement at high speed, criminal mischief incurring costs between $200-$1,000, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill, tampering with a witness or victim and grand theft of a firearm from a building, records show.
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