Georgia man convicted of killing 17-year-old Malden woman in 1991

Crime

Rodney Daniels has been discovered responsible of capturing and killing Patricia Moreno on the fireplace escape outdoors the condo she lived in together with her foster household.

A jury has discovered a 50-year-old Georgia man responsible of first-degree homicide for killing a 17-year-old Malden woman in 1991, concluding a 32-year-old chilly case that the Middlesex County District Lawyer’s Workplace introduced again into the highlight two years in the past.

Rodney Daniels was convicted of capturing Patricia “Tricia” Moreno within the head whereas she stood on the fireplace escape outdoors her condo on July 20, 1991, the district legal professional’s workplace mentioned in a press launch Wednesday.

“When a household loses a beloved one in a murder, even the passage of time by no means absolutely heals that wound. That’s very true when they don’t have solutions about what occurred and nobody has been held accountable,” District Lawyer Marian Ryan mentioned within the launch. “Those that knew and beloved Tricia have been ready over three many years for solutions.”

The preliminary investigation

On the evening of Moreno’s dying, police responded to the third-floor condo at 21 Henry St. in Malden that she shared together with her foster mom, the foster mom’s two teenage daughters, and Daniels, who was the older daughter’s boyfriend, the discharge mentioned.

Police discovered Moreno with gunshot wounds to her head. First responders rushed her to a hospital, the place she died of her accidents, the discharge mentioned.

The opposite folks within the condo on the time advised police they heard a pair of gunshots however had no concept who had shot Moreno, the discharge mentioned. There was no proof of pressured entry into the house.

When the police first interviewed Daniels, he mentioned he’d been sleeping in an armchair in the lounge when the gunshots woke him up, the discharge mentioned. He then went out onto the fireplace escape and noticed what had occurred to Moreno, he advised police, although it was her foster mom who referred to as 911 that evening.

Police quickly realized that Daniels’s owned a handgun that matched the bullet that killed Moreno and that he’d “engaged in threatening habits” towards her within the weeks earlier than her dying, the discharge mentioned. Nonetheless, they had been unable to acquire sufficient proof to make an arrest.

A brand new investigation

Authorities started reinvestigating the case in 2020 after Ryan reopened the district legal professional’s workplace Chilly Case Unit the 12 months prior.

Investigators reconstructed the scene and decided that, primarily based on the place of the entry wound and the trajectory of the bullet, the shooter was standing within the doorway of the condo, the discharge mentioned.

Additionally they started interviewing witnesses once more and obtained in touch with a brand new witness who lived within the condo under Moreno when she was murdered, the discharge mentioned. He advised them that on the evening of the homicide a loud noise woke him up.

He instantly appeared up by way of the third-floor hearth escape and noticed a younger lady, who was later recognized as Moreno, struggling to breathe, and a person, whose description matched that of Daniels, standing over her, the discharge mentioned. The witness watched as the person then retreated again into the condo. 

Investigators additionally found that an alibi witness, who had protected Daniels in 1991, later admitted to her family and friends that Daniels had killed Moreno, the discharge mentioned. She additionally mentioned he hid the homicide weapon inside an armchair and later disposed of the gun.

That witness, who’s now lifeless, admitted that she lied to police and a grand jury in 1991 to guard Daniels, the discharge mentioned. She mentioned that, even a few years later, she was afraid to reveal what she knew for worry of being prosecuted.

With the brand new proof, prosecutors obtained a warrant for Daniels’s arrest from Malden District Courtroom. He was arrested in his South Fulton house in Georgia in September 2021, arraigned as a fugitive from justice, after which transported to Massachusetts.