Jason Schumann & Elizabeth Ibarra Arrested In The Murder Of Francisco Javier Rodriguez Jr.

By GREG RISLING | Associated Press – Tue, Jan 17, 2012

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These photos released by the Los Angeles Police Department Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012 …

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A 24-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman were arrested for investigation of the murder of a popular high school soccer player who apparently was lured out of his home and gunned down last week, police said Tuesday.

Leaders of a special investigative task force said both suspects, Jason Schumann of Calabasas and Elizabeth Ibarra of Los Angeles, have extensive criminal records, but they did not immediately specify a motive for the killing of a student they described as being on the right track in life. Both suspects were taken into custody Monday and are being held on $1 million bail.

Francisco Javier Rodriguez Jr., a 17-year-old soccer goalie at El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, was shot on Jan. 11 after returning home from a game.

Relatives said he was killed after answering the door and stepping outside, where a red-haired woman had been seen. Police believe Ibarra lured Rodriguez into the front yard when he was shot. Ibarra apparently dyed her hair dark brown following the shooting, authorities said.

Investigators have said Rodriguez's killing was not random, but "personally motivated" and resulted in numerous tips, Deputy Chief Jorge Villegas said.

"There's a specific anonymous tip that came to us and we need that person to come forward, identify himself or herself, and provide us with additional information that we need to solidify this case," Villegas said at a news conference attended by the victim's family.

Family members didn't speak to reporters, asking for privacy.

Rodriguez's family said he had no gang affiliation and his life centered on soccer. Days before the shooting, Rodriguez came back home from a soccer tournament in Hawaii where he had spent a week and a half.
Schumann's record includes assault with a deadly weapon, battery, narcotics violations and forgery. Ibarra's record includes forgery, battery on a police officer, resisting arrest and identity theft. Both are on probation.

The murder weapon has not yet been recovered, Villegas said.

Police declined to reveal whether Rodriguez knew either suspect. Authorities would only say there was a "significant relationship" between Schumann and Ibarra and the two are believed to be the only ones involved in the slaying.

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LOS ANGELES – Prosecutors filed charges against one of two people arrested in the death of a popular high school soccer player who was shot and killed in front of his California home.

Jason Schumann, of Calabasas, was charged with one count of murder in the fatal shooting of Francisco Javier Rodriguez Jr., the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said in a statement. Prosecutors will ask that his bail be set at $2 million at his arraignment later Wednesday.

No charges have been filed against 19-year-old Elizabeth Ibarra, who also was arrested for investigation of Rodriguez's death and was being held without bail on a parole violation.

No motive was specified for the killing of Rodriguez, a 17-year-old soccer goalie at El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills. He was shot Jan. 11 shortly after returning home from a game.

Investigators have said only that the killing was "personally motivated."

Deputy Chief Jorge Villegas said police were also seeking additional information from a person who submitted a specific anonymous tip that could help solidify the case.
Relatives said Rodriguez was killed after answering the door and stepping outside, where a red-haired woman had been seen. Police believe Ibarra lured Rodriguez into the front yard when he was shot. Ibarra apparently dyed her hair dark brown following the shooting, authorities said.

Schumann's record includes assault with a deadly weapon, battery, narcotics violations and forgery. Ibarra's record includes forgery, battery on a police officer, resisting arrest and identity theft.

Rodriguez's family said he had no gang affiliation and that his life centered on soccer. Days before the shooting, Rodriguez came back home from a soccer tournament in Hawaii where he had spent a week and a half.

The murder weapon has not yet been recovered, Villegas said.

Police declined to reveal whether Rodriguez knew either suspect.

Authorities would only say there was a "significant relationship" between Schumann and Ibarra and the two are believed to be the only ones involved in the slaying.

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Search for Motive, Suspects in Soccer Player Death

By JOHN ROGERS Associated Press
LOS ANGELES January 13, 2012 (AP)

The mother of slain soccer player Francisco Javier Rodriguez Jr. sensed something was wrong the moment her 17-year-old son opened the front door to his home.

"He looked scared," his mother told Mary Salazar, a cousin.

Rodriguez's mother told relatives she briefly saw a red-haired young woman as the door opened and then her son stepped outside. Moments later, gunshots rang out along the block of small, single-story stucco homes.

Detectives said Rodriguez's killing was not random, but the motive and person or persons responsible remained unknown.

Rodriguez, nicknamed Ponchito by family and friends, had just returned home from a soccer game.

"He never answers the door," said another cousin, Janette Nuno, leading the family to believe he was expecting a visitor, perhaps someone who had texted or called him on his cellphone to say they were coming over.

"He didn't even have his shoes on yet. He went out in his socks," said Nuno, standing in the bloodstained front yard, steps from where Rodriguez was shot to death Wednesday night.

Rodriguez was a senior at nearby El Camino Real High School, where he was a goalie on the soccer team. At the soccer game Wednesday, he had held nearby rival Taft High School scoreless in a 0-0 tie.

"He was good enough to play college ball," said 17-year-old Kao Cano, who played with Rodriguez on a club team called Real So Cal and said he learned a lot from him. He and other teammates paid their respects to the family on Thursday.

Detective David Leveque told KCAL-TV that Rodriguez was targeted, but a motive wasn't disclosed.

Rodriguez's cousins said the family is baffled. He was a good kid who had no gang affiliation, the cousins said. Although he was friendly and liked girls, if he was seriously involved with a girl recently, the family didn't know about it.

"All he did was soccer," said Nuno, managing to laugh softly through tears. "He loved it ever since he was a little kid."

Just Saturday, he had arrived back home from a soccer tournament in Hawaii where he had spent a week and a half, she said.

"He had been talking about that for weeks," Cano said. "He was really looking forward to it."

The street where Rodriguez lived is a quiet, close-knit block where many people said they have known each other for years. A dozen or so children grew up there together and have hung out with each other since they were preschoolers, said 14-year-old Nicolas Meza, who lives across the street.

"Nothing like this has ever happened here," said Meza, who added he had just sat down to watch a movie when he heard the gunshots. By the time he and his family ran outside, the shooter was gone and Rodriguez was on the ground, his mother crying over him.

Nuno said Rodriguez's father, Francisco Sr., was returning from a visit to his native Mexico and didn't learn of his son's killing until a relative picked him up at the airport and took him to the hospital.

Family members said both mother and father, as well as Rodriguez's sister, Jessica, were too distraught to speak with visitors.

In front of the family's house, where Christmas lights were strung and a basketball pole and hoop rested in the driveway, a stream of people stopped by to leave flowers, candles or offer brief prayers.

"He was a really funny kid," Meza recalled. "He'd try to make you laugh. If he wasn't your friend, he'd try to make friends with you. He wanted to be friends with everybody."

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A 17-year-old El Camino Real High School soccer goalie was targeted for personal reasons by a man and woman who lured him out of his Winnetka home last week, then fatally shot him, authorities said.

At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, police announced the arrests of Elizabeth Ibarra, 19, of the San Fernando Valley and Jason Shumann, 24, of Calabasas. Both suspects are on probation and have extensive criminal records, police said.

Francisco Javier Rodriguez Jr. had just gotten home from a soccer game Jan. 11 when a mysterious redhead knocked on his front door and persuaded him to come outside. After he stepped out of the house, he was almost immediately gunned down by a man in a waiting sport utility vehicle.

"We don't believe it is gang-related.... We believe it is personally motivated," said Deputy Chief Jorge Villegas of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Detectives believe that Rodriguez may have been fatally shot over a romantic relationship, sources told The Times. The popular student had no gang ties but may have been involved with a woman with a jealous male friend, sources said. They provided no additional details.

Ibarra has a criminal record that includes forgery, identity theft and assault on a police officer. Shumann's criminal record includes assault with a deadly weapon, forgery and narcotics possession.

Within hours of the slaying, Rodriguez's teammates and coaches were at his home, calling upon the community to help find the killers.

A 15-member LAPD task force made the arrests Monday night after tracking down a green Ford Explorer that witnesses saw fleeing the shooting scene.

Police said Tuesday that Ibarra is not a natural redhead, but likely dyed her hair to throw off witnesses and authorities.

An anonymous tip helped authorities make the arrest, police said. But they are asking the tipster to contact them to help confirm the motives in the case.

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MOTIVE: Slain teen may have been the victim of boyfriend's jealous rage

By C.J. Lin, Staff Writer
Posted: 01/25/2012 09:05:32 PM PST
Updated: 01/25/2012 09:13:27 PM PST

The couple arrested for the killing of a star soccer player at El Camino Real High School were involved in a volatile relationship that included angry accusations of cheating on each other - when they weren't committing crimes together, investigators have determined.

Elizabeth Ibarra, 19, and Jason Schumann, 24, have been accused of the Jan. 11 murder of Francisco Rodriguez Jr., a 17-year-old goalie at El Camino.

The two carry convictions for forgery on their records, while Schumann has also been convicted of multiple charges that include drug possession and assault.

But it was the contentious relationship between the two that likely led to the Rodriguez killing, police believe.

Ibarra met the alleged victim at a party last summer, according to a police source who was not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

At the time, her boyfriend and now-suspected gunman in the killing, Schumann, was in jail after pleading no contest to forging identification. He had made two fake IDs, for himself and Ibarra, according to court records.

A few days after the party, Ibarra found Rodriguez on Facebook, and the two became friends, according to the source.

The two began going out, although it was unclear whether they were just friends or something more.

The relationship became the cause of major fights between Ibarra and Schumann, who found out about Rodriguez after his jail stint ended in August, the source
said.

And then in September 2011, Ibarra was arrested for trying to cash forged checks at a Van Nuys check cashing service. She was charged with four counts of forgery, but two were dismissed after she pleaded to the other two.
"She just doesn't care and continues to victimize people by means of fraud and theft," Judge Karen Nudell said at the time, according to court transcripts. Nudell sentenced Ibarra on Nov. 17 to 180 days in jail and three years of supervised probation.

Ibarra was supposed to be released on Jan. 17, but instead got out on Dec. 1 because of a work release program, according to the police source.

After her release, she discovered that Schumann, with whom she has an 18-month-old son, had been cheating on her and had fathered a child with another woman, according to the source.

Schumann is the father of two other children, ages 4 and younger than than 1-year-old, according to his attorney, Alec Rose. The couple was living with the two younger children at Schumann's family home in Calabasas at the time of their arrest.

The new discovery of another woman seemed to be the latest spark in a longstanding issue of infidelity between the couple.
"He's a sik(sic) cheating son of a bitch!" Ibarra posted on a picture of Schumann and their baby on her Facebook in January 2011.

She added: "Makes me gag! Makes me just plain! sik!!! I can't stand looking at him! Or hearing him! ... Love has become hate..."

Then perhaps out of spite, she told Schumann that she was still seeing Rodriguez, the source said.

And on Jan. 11 of this year, Schumann drove Ibarra over to Rodriguez's house to confront the teen about the relationship, the source said.

Ibarra asked the goalie to come outside and an argument ensued, then Schumann allegedly shot Rodriguez, police said.

Schumann, the youngest of four siblings, appeared to be the black sheep of a well-to-do family, according to neighbors.

"Obviously, the parents and their other children are upset about the situation," Rose said. "The main focus of the family is on the welfare of the grandchildren."

His mother is in management at a health insurance company, and his father is a consultant in the security field, according to Rose.

Schumann's criminal record also includes a conviction for possession of methamphetamine with a semi-automatic handgun in November 2010, and he was sentenced to 180 days in jail and three years of supervised probation. A charge of resisting arrest was dismissed.

In 2007, he was convicted of inflicting bodily injury on a spouse or cohabitant, according to court records.

His record also includes multiple arrests dating back to 2006 for battery, making terrorist threats, assault with a deadly weapon, drug-related bookings and attempted robbery, according to court documents.

Schumann's father would worry about his son's troubles with the law and his anger problem, according to neighbor Brian Brueckel.

"I'm not assuming anything yet," Brueckel said. "I'm giving him the benefit of doubt in this tragedy."

The family could not be reached for comment.

"His parents are very nice, but Jason kept to himself," Brueckel said. "He didn't talk much to other people.

Another neighbor who declined to give her name said she had had a bad feeling about Schumann and Ibarra.

"I've had a weird feeling about them all the time," she said.

Meanwhile, Schumann was "very worried" for his three children, Rose said.

"He feels concerned for both the family and situation," Rose said. "He's taking the situation very seriously."

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Check out Jason’s long list of arrests:
06/23/2011 for Theft
10/19/2010 for Loitering With Intent To Engage In Drug Activity
08/19/2010 for Conspiracy To Commit A Crime
06/09/2008 for Possession of A Controlled Substance
11/19/2007 for Inflicting Corporal Injury On Spouse/Cohabitant
10/01/2007 for Robbery
08/09/2007 for Battery
02/13/2006 for Assault W/Force Likely To Produce Gross bodily Injury

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