Former lightweight boxer Felix Verdejo was sentenced Friday to two life sentences for the 2021 killing of his pregnant mistress.
The 30-year-old was convicted by a federal jury this past July of one count each of kidnapping that leads to a death and causing the death of an unborn child, stemming from the shocking killing of Keishla Rodriguez Ortiz.
According to testimony from Verdejo’s co-defendant Luis Cadiz Martinez, Verdejo had been pressuring the 27-year-old into getting an abortion. He later punched her and injected her with a substance – fentanyl and the horse tranquilizer xylazine were found in her system – before tying her limbs to a cement block and throwing her from a bridge. A pathologist determined that Rodriguez was alive when she was thrown off the Teodoro Moscoso bridge into the San José Lagoon in the Puerto Rico capital of San Juan at approximately 8:30 a.m.
Cadiz, who pled guilty for his role and has yet to be sentenced, placed an anonymous 911 call to alert authorities to where her body was.
“This sentence should serve as a lesson for others. It doesn’t matter how much fame, money or power you think you have. If you break the law, you will have to respond,” said Puerto Rico Police Commissioner Antonio López.
Verdejo, a 2012 Puerto Rico Olympian, turned professional in December of 2012, but discipline issues with training stunted his progress. After winning his first 23 fights, Verdejo was stopped in ten rounds by Antonio Lozada in 2018 before losing his final bout, a ninth round stoppage to Masayoshi Nakatani, in December of 2020.