Angelina Rodriguez was born on May 31, 1968, and raised in Montebello, California, a quiet suburb just outside Los Angeles. Little is known about her early childhood, but as an adult, she experienced a tumultuous pattern of relationships—marrying four times, with each marriage ending either in separation or, in one case, death.

By the late 1990s, Angelina was working at a camp in San Luis Obispo, California, where she met Jose Francisco “Frank” Rodriguez, a special education teacher known for his compassion and patience. The couple married in April 2000, marking her fourth marriage. While it appeared to be a fresh start for both, prosecutors would later argue that it was part of a deadly setup.

In early 2000, just months after marrying Frank Rodriguez, Angelina began setting a deadly plan into motion. According to court documents, she secretly purchased a $250,000 life insurance policy on Frank. Then, she allegedly began multiple attempts to kill him. Prosecutors claim she first poisoned his tea using oleander leaves, a toxic plant known to be lethal. When that failed, she reportedly loosened the gas line on their clothes dryer—another failed attempt.

Eventually, Rodriguez succeeded in poisoning her husband with antifreeze-laced Gatorade, which he unknowingly consumed. On September 9, 2000, Frank Rodriguez died at their home in what was initially ruled an undetermined death. However, Angelina’s relentless push to obtain the insurance money raised suspicion. Because the coroner had not ruled a cause of death, she was denied the death certificate needed to collect the policy. Her insistence on further testing ended up backfiring—new tests revealed that Frank had been intentionally poisoned.

Angelina Rodriguez was arrested in February 2001 in Paso Robles, California.

Her murder trial began in fall 2003, and prosecutors introduced chilling new details—especially regarding the 1993 death of her daughter. While she wasn’t charged with that death, the evidence was permitted to show a pattern of financially motivated killings. The jury heard how she profited from both deaths and had a clear incentive for murder.

In October 2003, Rodriguez was found guilty of first-degree murder with special circumstances, including murder for financial gain and attempting to dissuade a witness. Although she was acquitted of solicitation to commit murder, the jury delivered a death sentence the following month.

On January 12, 2004, she was formally sentenced to death by lethal injection. The presiding judge called her actions “exceptionally cruel and callous,” declaring her guilt had been proven with “absolute certainty.”

Rodriguez continued to maintain her innocence, claiming that Frank had died by suicide, consuming antifreeze intentionally—a theory rejected by both the jury and medical experts.

In 2010, she was awarded a new sentencing hearing on appeal. Once again, she received a death sentence. However, in 2024, a second resentencing hearing was granted after courts determined she had received ineffective legal representation during her original trial. This time, the district attorney chose not to seek the death penalty, and Rodriguez was re-sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

She remains incarcerated at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla.