A Racine man will serve seven years in prison and then eight years of supervised release for his role in the 2008 death of his girlfriend’s two-year-old son.
28-year-old Jessie Rodriquez pleaded guilty to a lesser felony charge of child neglect resulting in death. The criminal complaint says the boy was tied to his bed with a blanket to keep him from leaving and to go to sleep, but suffocated because it was too tight.
Judge Charles Constantine’s order for Rodriguez includes no contact with Tisa Hawes, his one-time fiancé and the mother of the victim. She’s doing three years in prison, followed by a like-amount of supervised release for failing to prevent her son’s death.
AUDIO: Tom Karkow reports (:27)