By Liz Shepherd
InkFreeNews

Rodriguez Samandes Todd

WARSAW — A California man will serve 80 years in prison after DNA analysis connected him to a rape that occurred in Warsaw more than 22 years ago.

During a three-day jury trial in September, Rodriguez Samandes Todd, 53, La Mesa, Calif., was found guilty of rape and kidnapping, both class A felonies.

Todd was sentenced in Kosciusko Superior Court One on Tuesday, Oct. 18. Kosciusko Superior Court One Judge Karin McGrath sentenced Todd to 40 years in the Indiana Department of Correction on each charge, with both counts to run consecutively.

He has 35 days of jail time credit in the case and must register as a sex offender. Defense Attorney Paul Stanko said Todd intends to appeal.

On Nov. 23, 1999, a woman from Logansport said she was kidnapped by a black man with fake facial hair at a gas station in Warsaw, in the area of Center and Detroit Streets.

During her testimony at trial, the woman said she pulled over at the gas station to check her vehicle’s transmission fluid when Todd approached her with a knife and forced her into her vehicle.

Todd then took the woman to a wooded area and raped her twice. The woman drove away about an hour later after realizing Todd was no longer around. A sexual assault kit was completed on the woman.

The case remained cold until April 2019, when Indiana State Police were notified that a Combined DNA Index System search resulted in a computer match between Todd and a portion of the DNA profile entered earlier in the investigation.

Todd, who resided in California in 2019, was interviewed by a San Diego Police detective. During the interview, Todd said he lived in South Bend in 1999 and had several “one-night stands” during that time but couldn’t remember any names.

The DNA profile collected in the investigation was at least one trillion times more likely if it originated from the woman and Todd than if it originated from the woman and an unknown person.

At sentencing, Kosciusko County Prosecutor Dan Hampton argued for consecutive sentencing on Todd’s charges due to the severity of the incident. He also asked the court to consider how often these types of situations happen in Kosciusko County and that community standards must be upheld by ordering severe punishments for heinous crimes.

Hampton also read a letter from the victim, who was present in the courtroom for sentencing.

“What he took from me can never be recovered,” read the woman’s letter. “I’ve had to live with this pain, suffering and fear of this rapist. When I was in court, it was like I was being raped again. What you did does not define me. But you (Todd) are defined by what you have done. You raped me. I hope you never have peace and that you suffer. It’s been more than 20 years and you never realized what you did. After 20 plus years, I can finally move on.”

Stanko argued for concurrent sentencing on Todd’s charges and noted multiple letters of support submitted to the court about Todd’s personality. He further asked McGrath consider the events being unlikely to reoccur, as well as Todd’s nature, as mitigators in the case. Todd’s wife was present in court for the sentencing and also attended the jury trial.

Todd did not make a statement in court.

McGrath found no mitigators in the case and ruled Todd’s prior criminal history, which includes a probation violation, as well as the nature of the case, as aggravators.

“This crime in any county, in any city, is despicable and grievous,” said McGrath.