Case worker says Rodriguez should have been civilly committed

Fargo, N.D. (AP) A prison case worker says he and a psychologist believed that Alfonso Rodriguez Junior should have been civilly committed in 2003.

Rodriguez faces the death penalty after he was convicted of kidnapping resulting in the death of University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin (shuh-DEEN'). She was abducted from the parking lot of a Grand Forks shopping mall six months after Rodriguez was released from prison.

Ted Mickelson supervised Rodriguez for the last seven years of his 23-year-prison term. Rodriguez was released in May of 2003 and went to live with his mother in Crookston, Minnesota.

Mickelson says Rodriguez wanted to be placed into a halfway house. Defense attorneys say Rodriguez's reluctance to be released without supervision should be a factor that favors a term of life in prison.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APNP 09-14-06 1605CDT | save this article / add to your favorites list