Omar Rodriguez sentenced to life in prison for killing Jose Rey in Kendall – NBC 6 South Florida

A Kendall man accused of shooting his neighbor in 2015 during a dispute over dog poop yelled at the victim's wife as he was sentenced to life in prison Thursday.

Omar Rodriguez, 74, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the killing of Jose Rey. He attacked Rey's wife during a court hearing.

“The coward was your husband,” Rodriguez said as Rey's widow, Lissette Rey, gave a statement during the hearing. “That's why I killed him … he was crying like a baby.”

Rodriguez, handcuffed and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, was led out of the courtroom by several officers.

Rodriguez was found guilty by a jury in May of second-degree murder and aggravated assault in connection with the shooting death of Jose Rey in June 2015.

The jury deliberated for about six hours. The assault charge was based on a threat made by Rodriguez to Rey's wife.

According to police, Rey was walking his dog home in his Kendall neighborhood when Rodriguez said Rey's dog tried to do his business in Rodriguez's son's yard.

Family photo

Neighbors told police that the two men got into a loud argument and that Rodriguez told police that Rey threatened to come back and fight him.

At some point, police said, Rodriguez shot Rey, who died of his injuries more than a week later.

After the shooting, Rodriguez sought immunity under Florida's so-called “Stand Your Ground” law, but in 2021 a judge ruled that he did not believe Rodriguez acted in self-defense.

In the 2021 trial, Rodriguez claimed Rey threatened to kill him with a knife, but prosecutors said Rodriguez placed the knife at the crime scene and tried to wedge it in Rey's hand.

Neighbors testified in 2021 and again earlier this year, describing Rodriguez as confrontational and the “crazy neighbor.”

“I heard someone screaming, it sounded like right before the shots, a woman's voice screaming 'he's crazy, he's crazy' and then pa-pa-pa, so it sounded a bit like fireworks,” a neighbor testified.

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Rey leaves behind two children.

“The life of every party. He's friends with everyone, from the guy next to you to the CEO of a company who's giving his last shirt, just a wonderful human being,” Lissette Rey said in May.

Defense attorney Bruce Lehr had argued that Rey was the threat and that the neighbors were a lynch mob targeting his client. He had previously announced that he would appeal the verdict.

“It was a terrible situation because there was a neighborhood that hated a certain man and he was getting angrier and angrier. The neighborhood was getting angrier and angrier,” Lehr said. “There's definitely a lesson to be learned from this. Neighbors have to get along.”