Verdict reached in fatal Florida shooting that stemmed from fight over dog poop

The man accused of shooting a Kendall neighbor to death over a dog defecating in his son’s yard faces life in prison after being found guilty on Friday of second-degree murder and aggravated assault.

Omar G. Rodriguez, 75, who had a history of menacing neighbors for decades, was convicted for the killing of 52-year-old Jose Rey. Rodriguez was originally charged with first-degree murder, but a six-person jury found him guilty of a lesser charge. A sentencing hearing hasn’t been scheduled.

After the verdict was announced in courtroom 7-4 at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice building in Miami, Rodriguez extended his hands and a correctional officer put him in handcuffs. Holding a cane, he was then escorted to a backroom where he took off the suit he wore in the courtroom and exchanged it for an orange jumpsuit.

Rey’s family and friends hugged between tears and smiles.

Outside of the courtroom, Rey’s widow, Lissette Rey, said she sometimes feel like her late husband, a father of three, was a martyr.

“He took the bullet that could have been aimed at anybody else,” she said.

Rodriguez’s attorney, Bruce Howard Lehr, said a lesson must be learned: “Neighbors have to get along.”

The Kendall shooting

Rey’s killing was the culmination, authorities say, of Rodriguez’s years-long pattern of harassing residents in three Miami-Dade neighborhoods.

On June 21, 2015, police say Rodriguez finally went too far, shooting Rey three times outside the home of Rodriguez’s son in the Village of Kendall, a community less than a mile from his own home where neighbors also had long complained about his tirades and threats.

Witnesses told police that Rodriguez, then 66, followed in his car as Rey and his wife walked their dog around 9 p.m. near the corner of Southwest 97th Street and 103rd Avenue. He parked his car on a swale, flashed his lights and revved his engine, the arrest affidavit claims, then confronted Rey about the dog defecating on his son’s lawn.

Rey took the dog home. By the time he returned, witnesses told police, Rodriguez had taken his shirt off and was ready for a fight. Police say he shot Rey three times on the sidewalk as Rey raised his arms and backpedaled. When Rey’s wife tried to comfort her husband, witnesses told police Rodriguez threatened her, too.

Rey died several days later at Kendall Regional Medical Center.

After his arrest, Rodriguez’s attorney said his client was standing his ground from a potential threat, a knife that they alleged Rey was holding.

Witnesses said Rey was unarmed and had his hands in the air. And Rey himself, before dying at the hospital, told his wife that Rodriguez planted the knife found on the scene.

In March 2021, a Miami-Dade judge ruled that he does not believe Rodriguez acted in self-defense.

Miami Herald staff writer Chuck Rabin contributed to this report.