Jury hands down 40 years in slaying of neighbor

When Raul Rodriguez took his video recorder, cellphone and gun to break up a neighbor's loud party, he knew exactly what he needed to say to get away with murder.

"I am in fear for my life," Rodriguez told police on the phone as Kelly Danaher and his friends tried to figure out why a neighbor they seldom talked to was luring them out to the street in their rural northeast Harris County neighborhood in 2010.

Danaher's mother sobbed on the witness stand Wednesday as she threw those words back at Rodriguez after he was sentenced to 40 years in prison for fatally shooting her 36-year-old son.

"Eternal fire and damnation is not enough for what you took from us," Connie Danaher said during a victim impact statement. "Every single day that you are incarcerated, I pray that you come to know the true meaning of, 'I fear for my life.'"

The jury earlier this month rejected Rodriguez's claim of "self-defense" under Texas' "stand-your-ground" laws and deliberated about five hours before deciding Wednesday how much time Rodriguez, 47, would spend in prison. He will have to serve at least half of that sentence before being eligible for parole.

A juror who declined to give his last name said the jury was split 8 to 4 over whether Rodriguez was guilty and the same jurors split the same way in their decision between life in prison and a lesser sentence.

"We just worked on it and hashed it out," said Bill from Spring. "There was a lot of compromise."

Defense Attorneys Bill Stradley and Neal Davis turn to Raul Rodriguez as the verdict is read in the 178th State DIstrict Court at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center on Wednesday, June 27, 2012, in Houston. Rodriguez is sentenced 40 years in prison for the shooting death of Kelly Danaher. less Defense Attorneys Bill Stradley and Neal Davis turn to Raul Rodriguez as the verdict is read in the 178th State DIstrict Court at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center on Wednesday, June 27, 2012, in ... more Photo: Mayra Beltran, Houston Chronicle Photo: Mayra Beltran, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 77 Caption Close Jury hands down 40 years in slaying of neighbor 1 / 77 Back to Gallery

Guests blamed

Bill, the only juror who commented, said several members of the panel thought some of Danaher's guests were partially to blame for the shooting, because they charged Rodriguez.

It was just after midnight on May 2, 2010, when Rodriguez went to Danaher's Huffman home to complain about the noise from karaoke singers. Earlier in the night, he had called police who visited Danaher's house without result.

Rodriguez got the party goers' attention with a flashlight. When they approached, he told them to "turn down the noise." Moments into the encounter, he said he was in fear for his life and pulled his pistol, backing up Danaher and others.

He put the pistol back on his hip and, talking to police on the phone with the video camera rolling, said the group was "escalating the situation."

During the last seven minutes of the 22-minute recording, Rodriguez repeatedly says he is going to have to shoot the men in self-defense. In the final seconds of the tape, three men, including Danaher, charged Rodriguez from the side and a shot rings out as the camera falls.

"Raul believed he had the right to be where he was," defense attorney Bill Stradley told jurors. "But he had two seconds to make that call, to pull that trigger."

Stradley and attorney Neal Davis said their client made the wrong call because of the "stand-your-ground" laws in Texas.

"And as we go forward into the future, other people will make the wrong call" about laws that permit the use of force when someone feels threatened, Stradley said. "And they will find themselves, like Raul Rodriguez, charged with murder."

He asked jurors to sentence Rodriguez to five years in prison, the minimum.

Described as a bully

Prosecutors said Rodriguez was trying to hide behind a law that protects responsible gun owners.

"This was not a man who truly knew the law or who truly took it seriously," said Assistant Harris County District Attorney Kelli Johnson.

Prosecutor Donna Logan told jurors Rodriguez was a bully who took his neighborhood hostage.

"He wasn't mad about the music on May 2," Logan said. "He's been mad about the music for years, not because it was too loud, but because he wasn't in control of it."

As Danaher's mother went to the witness stand to give her statement late Wednesday, Rodriguez mouthed something to his family and they all stood and left, infuriating Danaher's widow.

"It's disrespectful to her, it's disrespectful to my family," Mindy Danaher said. She also said she was disappointed Rodriguez was not sentenced to the maximum - life in prison.

"It would have been nice to hear the words, but he'll die in prison," she said. "Forty years. He'll die in prison."

brian.rogers@chron.com twitter.com/brianjrogers