Provo » A jury said Friday that Pedro Hugo Rodriguez was guilty of sexually molesting five boys.
The verdict came around 7:45 p.m., after about eight hours of deliberation, as the jury decided Rodriguez was guilty of two counts of aggravated sexual assault, one count of forcible sodomy and all 31 counts of sodomy on a child.
The charges are all first-degree felonies and each carry a sentence of five years to life.
The Payson man was also found guilty of 22 counts of unlawful sexual conduct with 16- to 17-year-old, a third-degree felony.
Rodriguez was accused of molesting five boys, ranging in ages from 9 to 16, between 2005 and 2008.
Fourth District Judge Lynn Davis allowed the jury to consider a charge of unlawful sexual conduct with a 16- or 17-year-old instead of aggravated sexual assault in the case of one boy.
Deputy Utah County Attorney Donna Kelly said the jurors had asked if the fact that Rodriguez kept guns near the bed where he abused one of the boys constituted a threat, as required for the aggravated sexual assault charge. The boy testified that Rodriguez threatened him with a gun and knife on two occasions. Kelly said the jurors apparently decided that there was no threat in the other 22 incidents, warranting the lesser charge.
Kelly said the verdict was "fair" in that jurors recognized that Rodriguez was a threat to children.
"We hope he will stay in custody for the rest of his life," Kelly said.
Rodriguez showed no emotions as each of the 56 verdicts were read in court. Afterwards, two plainclothes Utah County Sheriff's deputies escorted him out of the courtroom.
Rodriguez will be sentenced April 27. He was sent back to the Utah County jail, where he has been held since his arrest in September 2008.
One of victims was in the courtroom for the verdict, but he declined to comment.
Public Defender Barbara Gonzales, Rodriguez's attorney, said Rodriguez and one of his victims had consensual sex. During closing remarks, she reiterated Rodriguez's testimony that the boy blackmailed him into having sex by threatening to turn Rodriguez into the police on a sex assault charge.
"[The boy] was not afraid of Hugo," Gonzales said. "I think Hugo was afraid of [the boy]."
The Salt Lake Tribune does not publish the names of sexual assault victims.
But Kelly said Rodriguez preyed on troubled boys and was the one using threats to get sex. She said Rodriguez had threatened to kill some of the boys or their families if they didn't let him molest them.
"The boys had to step up to the plate, and now it is your turn," Kelly admonished the jury, pointing out the courage it took the victims, now ages 14-18, to confront Rodriguez in court.
She said Rodriguez had not had any normal relations with adults, and the boys he targeted with gifts of ATVs, guns and money came from troubled homes.
"In the daytime, it was 'Hugo's House of Fun,' " Kelly told jurors, "and in the nighttime, it became 'Hugo's House of Horrors.' "
She said the boys gave consistent, brutally honest testimony, and are more credible witnesses than Rodriguez, who admitted he lied "50 percent of the time" to police.
