SAN ANTONIO – It took the jury a scant 45 minutes Tuesday to decide that David Rodriguez, 32, should be sent to prison for life.
Rodriguez was convicted of murder Friday in the death of 17-month-old Welsey Masporo.
Welsey, three siblings and their parents were traveling on the I-35 access road near Shepherd Road on the evening of Sept. 19, 2012, when their station wagon was hit almost head-on by Rodriguez, who was going the wrong way.
According to prosecutors, Rodriguez was fleeing from police because he had 419 pounds of marijuana in his vehicle.
During the punishment phase of Rodriguez' trial, the child's mother, Regina Maspero, told how she held her dying son's hand in the hospital following the accident.
"I just kept telling him, 'Please get up Wesley, please,'" she testified. "You have to come home."
Though injured herself, Regina Maspero said she began searching for her children following the crash.
"I was looking for him, and he was face down in his car seat," she told jurors.
Another of the couple's children, Walter Maspero, 3, was also killed in the wreck.
Rodriguez is facing murder charges in Walter Maspero's death as well as federal drug charges.
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