Posted: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 12:00 am | Updated: 4:12 pm, Wed Mar 21, 2012.

By Scott DeSmit


Rodriguez-Flamenco

ALBION — A judge has ruled that statements an illegal immigrant made to police after he was arrested and charged with murdering a shopper in the Wal-Mart parking lot can be used during a trial.

Judge James Punch last week also set a trial date of Aug. 6 for Luis A. Rodriguez-Flamenco.

Rodriguez-Flamenco is charged with two counts of second-degree murder and first-degree robbery for allegedly stabbing Kathleen Byham to death the night of Oct. 30.

His attorney, Public Defender Sanford Church, had requested that statements Rodriguez-Flamenco made to police be suppressed during trial.

Rodriguez-Flamenco, 24, admitted stabbing Byham as she approached her car in the Wal-Mart parking lot. He said he grabbed her keys and was going to steal her car but ended up stabbing her to death with a small knife. He told investigators he didn’t know why he stabbed Byham.

Church also asked that Punch review grand jury minutes to see if the grand jury presentation was done properly. It was, Punch ruled.

Punch had set an earlier trial date for the case but pushed it back to Aug. 6 to avoid any conflict with another pending murder trial in June.

Carlos Cardenas, 22, is charged with murdering and raping his 15-year-old sister-in-law, Katie Sanchez, 15. He is scheduled to face trial June 20.

Both Cardenas and Rodriguez-Flamenco are illegal immigrants and both are accused of crimes that received national attention.

Rodriguez-Flamenco and two friends were walking in the Wal-Mart parking lot when they approached Byham, 45, who had just finished shopping.

The two other men backed away as Rodriguez-Flamenco grabbed Byham’s keys and inexplicably began stabbing her in the torso with a kitchen knife.

All three men fled as Byham lay bleeding to death in the parking lot.

They were arrested later that night and early the next morning. The other two men were charged, but the charges were later dismissed after it was determined they did not know of Rodriguez-Flamenco’s plans to steal Byham’s car.

“I ran up to her and I snatched her car keys and I started stabbing her with a small bladed kitchen knife that I had taken with me from my house,” he told investigators. “I had the knife in my pants and I pulled it out and started to stab her.

“I don’t know why I did it but I took her keys and ran across the street into the field. I threw the knife and the keys down somewhere in the field and I ran through the field and then to the railroad tracks.”

Those statements will no doubt help District Attorney Joseph Cardone’s case against Rodriguez-Flamenco. Three people at Wal-Mart also witnessed the attack and were able to identify Rodriguez-Flamenco.

Judge: Defendant's statements admissible in Albion Wal-Mart murder case - The Daily News Online: News