Francisco Rodriguez -- convicted five years ago for the 1990 murder of state police Cpl. Theodore D. Wolf -- took the first step toward implementing a previously secret plea agreement that would suspend all but 15 years of his life sentence .
His motion in Howard County Circuit Court yesterday for a sentence reconsideration, bitterly opposed by Wolf's widow, was delayed by Judge Raymond J. Kane Jr., giving the Howard County state's attorney's office two months to study the agreement.
Marna L. McLendon -- the Howard County state's attorney, who was not in office when the plea bargain was reached -- said yesterday's ruling was a good first step toward finding out whether the state should ask that the agreement be stricken.
"This case has to be considered and studied thoroughly," said McLendon, who said she wanted to look into allegations that Rodriguez lied in the statement he gave to police investigating Wolf's murder.
"I thought that this was all over back in 1992," said Ginni Wolf, the officer's widow.
"I had no idea that this trial would have to take place," added Mrs. Wolf, who has been a vocal proponent of the death penalty for killing police officers since her husband's murder. "The next step is to be as helpful as we can be to the state's attorney's office."
When Rodriguez pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in January 1992, he was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole in 15 years. His accomplice, Eric Tirado, had received life without parole after his trial the previous year.
At the time, Rodriguez's plea bargain was sealed and subsequent attempts -- by the Wolf family and The Sun -- to open the agreement failed.
Made public for the first time yesterday, the agreement showed that Rodriguez would get the 15-year sentence in return for agreeing to testify in any retrial of Tirado. Now that Tirado has exhausted all appeals, Rodriguez is trying to put the agreement into effect.
Rodriguez is in Leavenworth Federal Prison in Kansas, serving a 15-year sentence an unrelated drug conviction, which has no parole provisions, meaning he would serve essentially the same sentence for the Wolf murder.
"Fifteen years is a lot different than a life sentence," Mrs. Wolf said yesterday. "I don't think he got a sentence at all."
Yesterday, McLendon, asking for a continuance, argued that she be allowed enough time to familiarize herself with the case. Timothy G. Wolf, who tried the original case and agreed to the terms of the plea agreement, no longer works in the state's attorney's office.
Mrs. Wolf's attorney, Michelle M. Martz, said the plea agreement should be voided and Rodriguez given the full life sentence.
"This plea agreement was an outrage," Martz said. "This just erases the life sentence -- that's why it's so appalling.
Patrick Jameson, president of the State Law Enforcement Officers Labor Alliance, agreed.
"Mr. Rodriguez is a lying, drug-dealing criminal," said Jameson, one of more than 100 law-enforcement personnel who packed yesterday's hearing in the Ellicott City courthouse.
"It's despicable that this plea agreement would even be considered in this case," he said.
Wolf, 40, was shot twice in the head March 29, 1990, after he had stopped Rodriguez and Tirado for speeding on Interstate 95 in Jessup as the two men were heading home to New York in a stolen car.
Pub Date: 8/03/97
