The Los Angeles Police Department Wednesday charged a 24-year-old man with killing high school soccer player Francisco Javier Rodriguez Jr., who was shot to death in the front of his home last week.
Jason Schumann, of Calabasas, Calif., was charged with one count of murder over the Jan. 11 incident in Winnetka, in northwest Los Angeles.
Nineteen-year-old San Fernando Valley woman Elizabeth Ibarra was also arrested on suspicion of murder, but was not charged. She was being held without bail on a probation violation, the Los Angeles Times reported.
LAPD detectives said the motives for the killing of the 17-year-old Rodriguez were personal. Sources told the Times Schumann was angry over text messages Ibarra — the mother of his child — had exchanged with the talented goalkeeper, as well as other communication he had discovered on her phone while she was in jail.
Ibarra was serving a 180-day sentence fro two felony counts of forgery but was released early, on Jan. 4, because of jail overcrowding.
A week after her release, on Jan. 11, Times sources said she went to see Rodriguez at his home. When he came outside to talk to her, Schumann — who had been waiting in a green Ford Explorer, allegedly shot him multiple times.
Rodriguez, a member of the varsity boys' soccer team at El Camino Real High School, had played in a match just before he was gunned down.
Soccer coach Ian Kogan described Rodriguez as a "great kid" who loved to play soccer and "cared a lot" about his teammates and his school.
At the beginning of a game this week against Cleveland High, El Camino Real left the goalposts unattended in Rodriguez's honor.
