A Dominican Republican accused of stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death was dragged out of a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday as prosecutors revealed gory new details of the case, including that the suspect had been deported in 2002.
Suspect Candido Rodriguez, 51, was taken into custody after pleading innocent in the murder of victim Melanie Woods, 33, who was Rodriguez’s on-again, off-again girlfriend and whom prosecutors say Rodriguez brutally stabbed to death last month before dumping her body in the bathtub of his East Harlem home.
“I promise I didn’t do anything to her,” he yelled through tears to the nine members of Woods’ family sitting in the courtroom.
“I loved her, but I never did anything to her.”
As the charges against Rodriguez were read, he also shouted in Spanish, “It’s a lie, it’s a lie.”
Rodriguez, who has a criminal history, is accused of stabbing the 33-year-old Columbia University graduate 19 times in the torso and neck, stabbing her so viciously that she was left with a six-inch deep wound in her abdomen, Assistant District Attorney Marcella Lupski said.
Rodriguez and Woods, who worked at the city’s health hospital, had been dating since early 2023 before splitting, she said.
Prosecutors said she had left her husband two weeks before she was killed.
On the morning of the murder, Rodriguez visited Woods’ apartment just after 7 a.m., where he was walking his dog.
When she returned, neighbors in the building heard “crashes and screams” for at least 30 minutes, Lupski said.
Neighbors then heard someone walking down the stairs and out of the building, she said.
Authorities said Woods’ body was discovered 10 hours after a concerned friend asked police to check on him.
But Rodriguez maintained his innocence in court during his arraignment, pleading not guilty to a charge of second-degree murder.
Rodriguez, red-faced and so rowdy that he dropped to the floor during his arraignment and had to be forcibly picked up and taken away by several courtroom officers.
“Mr. Rodriguez became very agitated, violent and disruptive and would not allow the prosecutor to speak. He was yelling over and over again in Spanish and I was told, ‘I didn’t do that, I’m not guilty,'” Judge Ann Scherzer said.
The suspect was indicted on a federal conspiracy charge of drug trafficking between 1999 and 2002 and was deported from the U.S. in 2002, Lupski said.
She said Rodriguez has used multiple aliases in the past at various times with authorities.
Defence lawyer Jessica Holani said she plans to request a mental competency test for her client.
“I observed him to be very agitated and emotional. I don’t believe he has full control of his faculties at this time,” Holani said.
“This is something I’ve noticed since I first met him at his arraignment in criminal court, and it appears to be a significant decompensation.”
His next court date is July 16th.
