Man sentenced to 27.5 years in prison for Isanti County robbery gone wrong

A judge on Friday sentenced a man to more than 27 years in prison for killing another man during an Isanti County, Minnesota, robbery that went wrong.

Jessie Mateo Rodrigues was convicted of second-degree murder and two counts of first-degree burglary following a three-week trial in March.

Rodrigues is one of four people arrested and charged after Jose De Jesus Diaz Fernandez was found shot to death in a Spencer Brook Township home in December 2023. 

Charging documents said Rodrigues was hired along with two others to rob the home, which was a purported drug stash house. The three dressed as police officers, and Rodrigues shot and killed Fernandez. 

"The violence that took place in Spencer Brook Township in December 2023 was shocking, appalling, and completely senseless," Minnesota Attorney General Ellison said. "My office has been working closely with state and local law enforcement for well over a year to hold all the perpetrators accountable, and today's sentencing completes that process."  

The man who hired Rodrigues, Fredy Saavedra Olivar, was sentenced to more than 30 years in prison. Court documents say he believed he would be able to get out of a "very large debt to a cartel organization" by staging the robbery.

The two others who robbed the home — Jerold Allen Downs and Abraham Alexander Houle — were sentenced to 30.5 years and 25 years, respectively.