Rodriguez Loses Death Appeal

(AP) The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has denied an appeal by Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. The Crookston man was convicted in the kidnapping and death of Dru Sjodin of Pequot Lakes. The opinion was released today in Minneapolis.

Rodriguez was convicted in the 2003 kidnapping of Ms. Sjodin, a University of North Dakota student. She was last seen alive in the parking lot of a Grand Forks shopping mall where she worked. The body of the Pequot Lakes woman was found near Crookston five months later.

Rodriguez, a convicted sex offender, appealed on several grounds, but the 8th circuit rejected his arguments on all of them.