A state appeals court panel has upheld a man’s conviction for a shooting at a Glendale taco stand that left his former friend dead and injured a 10-year-old boy.
In a ruling released Tuesday, the panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal found “sufficient and substantial evidence” to support David Rodriguez’s first-degree murder conviction for the May 20, 2020, killing of 20-year-old Teodik Atanes, a former friend and business partner.
“He contends that because he indisputably came upon Teodik that night by happenstance and there is no evidence that he planned to encounter or kill Teodik on that specific night, his homicidal actions upon coincidentally seeing Teodik could only be characterized as rash and impulsive, not as taken through preexisting thought and reflection,” the panel noted in its ruling. “That he came upon Teodik unexpectedly that night does not mean there is insufficient evidence of planning.”
The ruling noted that there was testimony during Rodriguez’s trial that he was regularly armed “such that he was prepared for a chance encounter with Teodik that might arise.”
Along with the murder charge, Rodriguez was convicted of assault with a firearm involving the 10-year-old boy, a bystander who was struck in the arm while at the taco stand with family members. The boy was released after being treated at a hospital, authorities said.
Rodriguez — who was arrested by Glendale police less than two months after the shooting — was sentenced in July 2023 to 57 years to life in state prison.