Provo » Pedro Hugo Rodriguez admitted Thursday that he had sex with one of the five boys accusing him of assault, and a jury will begin deliberations today on whether the 40-year-old is guilty of more than 50 charges of sexually abusing children.
Rodriguez, who took the stand in his own defense, said the boy was not only a willing participant, but initiated the sexual activity and blackmailed him into having sex.
"He said if I didn't do it, he said he would tell the cops, and he's a kid and they would believe him," Rodriguez said.
The defense and prosecution will present closing arguments this morning.
Rodriguez faces 24 counts of aggravated sexual assault, 31 counts of sodomy on a child and one count of forcible sodomy, all first-degree felonies. Each charge carries a possible sentence of five years to life.
Provo police Detective Mark Peterson, an investigator in the special victims unit, said the boy told him Rodriguez threatened to kill him if he went to the police, and he would also try to kill any police officers who tried to take him before killing himself.
Peterson told the court the boy was so scared of Rodriguez that when the boy was showing him Rodriguez's home west of Payson, the teen tried to hide under the car's dashboard. He also testified there were four pictures of young boys on Rodriguez's cell phone, two of which showed a boy naked from behind and another of a sexual act.
The five boys, now ages 14 to 18, said in their testimony Tuesday that Rodriguez sexually abused them and threatened them into silence.
They said Rodriguez initially befriended them, having them over to his home or a mink farm where he worked to ride ATVs or shoot guns. He also took the boys to play basketball and to movies.
Rodriguez denied having sex with four of the boys, whom he said had lied about it. He said the fifth boy, then 16, groped him while sleeping at his house one night.
"I felt someone grab me. First, it was my leg, then he went other places," Rodriguez said.
He said the acts later escalated to having sex with the boy on at least three occasions.
A video of Rodriguez's interrogation showed him at first denying the accusations, then claiming the boy sodomized himself with various objects before finally admitting that he had sex with the boy.
Rodriguez said he gave contradictory statements because he was still recovering from the effects of a stun grenade a SWAT team threw into his bedroom when he was arrested. He said he is still traumatized by the experience.
But Deputy Utah County Attorney Donna Kelly said Rodriguez appeared relaxed in his interrogation video. The video showed Rodriguez sitting in a chair with his arms crossed on his chest. She said Rodriguez also told investigators he had sex with the boy six times.
Kelly suggested he was sexually attracted to boys and used money and gifts to entice them into bed, and threats if that didn't work.
"You were going to take what you wanted, either nicely or by force," Kelly said to Rodriguez.
"I never forced anyone to do anything they didn't want to do," Rodriguez responded.
