By Jason Islas
Lookout Staff

July 15, 2011 – Santa Monica resident Francisco Gerardo Rodriguez will stand trial later this month for the alleged torture of a 26-year-old man with mental disabilities.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kathryn Solorazno reviewed the case and listened to witness testimony at the preliminary hearing Wednesday and Thursday.

“The judge has determined there is probable cause” for the defendant to stand trial, Jane Robison, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles District Attorney's office told The Lookout Thursday.

Early Wednesday morning, Rodriguez entered Judge Solorazno's courtroom escorted by the bailiff, hands cuffed behind his back. He was clean shaven and his hair was close-cropped. A pair of thin framed eyeglasses rested on the bridge of his nose. He wore a standard issue L.A. County jail blue jumpsuit.

Deputy District Attorney Simone Shay called her first witness to the stand, Rodriguez' 7-year-old son.

At one point, Shay showed Rodriguez' son a picture of rope and asked him if he recognized it. The boy answered that he had seen his dad use it to tie up Steve Buenrostro, the alleged victim.

As his son spoke, Rodriguez focused on the table in front of him, his head down.

According to testimony by Jose Buenrostro, the victim's brother, Steve left home sometime in July 2010.

Steve left to live with Rodriguez after a fight he had with his family, according to Jose. After that, his family lost touch with Steve, until he turned up in a hospital in Culver City about seven months later.

Steve testified himself, claiming that he remembered occasionally getting into confrontations with Rodriguez, but had trouble remembering the details because he was drinking and using drugs at the time.

On several occasions, Steve pointed out injuries on his body but couldn't remember how he had gotten them.

Rodriguez sat quiet and motionless through the proceeding, even during a tense moment when another of Steve's brothers entered the courtroom as Steve's witness support. The brother stared angrily at Rodriguez, ignoring the judge's admonitions, and eventually was ordered to leave and was escorted out of the courtroom by the bailif.

The case is now set for arraignment, which will be held on July 28th at the LAX courthouse, department C.

Santa Monica police arrested Rodriguez and Maria Leyva Jasmilet in March after the alleged victim was found outside a Culver City hospital, emaciated and with many cuts and bruises on his body.

Buenrostro told police that he had been held against his will in an apartment in the 3000 block of Santa Monica Boulevard, where he said he had been repeatedly assaulted and tortured.

Doctors told police that the alleged victim appeared to be emaciated and suffered from numerous cuts, abrasions, and contusions over his entire body, including his genitalia. Further investigation revealed that the he had numerous new tattoos and appeared to have lost 60 to 80 pounds of weight.

The DA decided to file charges against Rodriguez, but declined to do so against Jasmilet pending further investigation, according to Sergeant Richard Lewis of the Santa Monica Police Department.