Family of suspected serial killer's victim seeking death penalty
HOUSTON (FOX 26) - While photos of Jose Gilberto Rodriguez continue to circulate online, it’s important to remember the victims and their families, now left to deal with grief after the terror he caused. FOX 26 spoke with the family of Eduardo Magana, the man who was killed Monday at the Mattress One store in north Houston.
“There was never a day that he didn’t go to work happy. Anything he did whether it was the pawnshop, it was Mattress One, whether that was Uber, it didn’t matter. He went to work happy and always enjoyed what he was doing,” Eric Magana says of his 57-year-old father.
He tells us his father was a hardworking man who held several jobs to support his family. Magana leaves behind a wife, four children and grandchildren. He also tell FOX 26 it’s all surreal, as he expect's to hear from him at any moment since they last spoke moments before his life was taken.
“I was asking for job advice, you know some teaching advice, and you know he said he had to go take care of a customer and that’s how we ended it. He said he would call me back,“ Eric says.
That call back never came. Magana was shot and killed Monday afternoon at the Mattress One store where he was an employee.
“I mean you feel gutted, of course. You know you feel like there’s a hole inside of you. You feel like you’ve been punched in all the air has been taken out of you. But the only thing that we can do now is rally around each other and keep his memory alive,” says Eric.
Magana's children say they are relieved Rodriguez was captured, to spare any other family the pain that they feel. Now they will ban together to make sure justice is served.
“I really hope God forgives you and I hope you can live with yourself for what you’ve done. You have caused not just grief to me, but to a lot of families these past couple of days and it’s just senseless,” says Magana's eldest son Raul.
The family now was the difficult task of planning their father’s funeral and a vigil to honor his memory. They tell us that they hope Rodriguez receives the death penalty.