After the grieving family members of victims Jeremy Kuemmel and Tiffany Ellebrecht spoke about how their lives had been destroyed by their gruesome murders, Judge Gregory Elvine-Kreis turned and faced their killer.

“I hope those words resonated with you, Mr. Rodriguez,” the judge said to Ulisses Rodriguez. “Because you’re going to have a long time to think about them. Mr. Rodriguez, it is the judgment and sentence of this court that you serve life in prison without the possibility of parole.”

Rodriguez, now 26, shot Kuemmel and Ellebrecht to death on Aug. 14, 2018, because he believed Kuemmel stole some marijuana plants from the grow site Rodriguez was managing in Southern Humboldt. Kuemmel, 32, and Ellebrecht, 31, had been working and living at the site.

“He killed two people for reasons that are ridiculous,” said Daniel Kearney, Kuemmel’s uncle and the first speaker at the sentencing. He said his nephew “may have been a lot of things, but he was not a thief.”

Kearney said that while Rodriguez was running around acting like “a big shot,” his nephew was at the grow site “starving” and with no fuel.

Kuemmel took a few young plants worth $20 to $30 each to get money for necessities, Kearney said. And for that he lost his life.

Kearney, along with other speakers on Friday, called Rodriguez a monster.

“I’d love to be able to threaten him,” Kearney said. “I’d love to be able to call him every name in the book.”

Instead, Kierney said, he can just hope Rodriguez has a “long, long long time to think about this and then dies in prison.”

Suzanne Palmieri, who called herself “Jeremy’s second mom,” said “none of us should be here today. We’re here only because of the actions of a monster.”

Another speaker, Ellebrecht’s sister-in-law Tess Ellebrecht, told Rodriguez Kummel was a wonderful person who would have made a great friend.

“You would have benefited from his friendship,” she told Rodriguez. He sat stiffly, staring forward, as people spoke about their grief and pain.

“He killed himself the day he killed Tiffany and Jeremy,” said Ellebrecht, who was not only Tiffany’s sister-in-law  but a close, lifelong friend of hers.

“I hope you see Jeremy and Tiffany around every corner,” she told Rodriguez.

What was actually on Rodriguez’s mind was getting his sentencing postponed. Before the sentence was imposed, Rodriguez said he hadn’t had the required time to review his Probation Department report with his attorney, Andrea Sullivan.

Although the Probation Department submitted the report on March 24, Sullivan hadn’t received it as of Friday morning. She appeared via Zoom from her Lake County office to announce this. Elvine-Kreis ordered her to drive to Humboldt County to go over the report with Rodriguez. She said she could be here by 1:30 or 2 p.m., but ended up arriving after 3 p.m., keeping many people waiting for hours. The judge told her off for that.

When the sentencing finally began, Sullivan said she was ready but Rodriguez wasn’t. He wanted to address the judge.

“Your Honor I was hoping to have more time,” Rodriguez said. “I was supposed to have it (the probation report) four or five days and go over it with her (Sullivan.) Me and her were going to sit down and talk about motions, including a motion for new trial.”

Elvine-Kreis interrupted him, saying his attorney was prepared to go forward with sentencing and he had received no motions indicating otherwise. Rodriguez tried talking over the judge.

“Stop talking,” Elvine-Kreis warned him. “I’m not talking to you.”

“I haven’t been able to talk to her, Your Honor.”

Elvine-Kreis closed the courtroom for 10 minutes so Rodriguez and Sullivan could confer. By the time the public was allowed back in, Rodriguez had filed a motion to replace Sullivan as his lawyer. The judge denied the motion.

Several speakers expressed their sympathy for Rodriguez’s family. Martin and Georgina Rodriguez drove from Chico to attend the sentencing, accompanied by Ulisses Rodriguez’s 8-year-old son Sebastian. The boy was not in court to see his father sentenced, remaining in the courthouse hallway with his grandmother.

Kuemmel and Ellebrecht were shot dead, then chained together and put in the back of Kuemmel’s SUV, which was  set on fire. Their bodies were burned beyond recognition.

 Deputy District Attorney Luke Bernthal, the trial prosecutor, was in court for his office. At least one of the jurors from Rodriguez’s trial attended the sentencing.

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