He’s Facing Murder Charge : Court: Arrested after girl’s death, Rollins remains popular among many Wasco High students.

WASCO, Calif. —  A murder charge may be hanging over him, but Offord Rollins appears to be an upbeat high school student. He walks across the Wasco High campus, high-fiving his buddies and chatting with the girls.

In his spare time, he runs wind sprints to get back into shape. He plans to defend his triple jump title at next month’s Sunkist Indoor Track and Field Invitational at the Sports Arena.

On Feb. 18, three days after the meet, Rollins is scheduled to go on trial for first-degree murder in Kern County Superior Court in Bakersfield. He is charged with the Aug. 2 shooting death of 17-year-old Maria Madera Rodriguez, whom Rollins had occasionally dated in the last year.

Rollins, 18, says he is innocent.

“I am confident I will be cleared,” he said in a recent interview at his home. “I’mconfident, even though my fate lies in the hands of 12 other people.”

There probably is not a person in Wasco, a farming community of 11,000 about 30 miles west of Bakersfield, who has not heard of Rollins.

Before Rodriguez was murdered, Rollins was widely known for his athletic abilities. A running back on the football team, he gained 848 yards and scored 11 touchdowns during his junior season in 1990.

In track, at the CIF State meet last year, Rollins outjumped his closest competitor by two feet, winning at 51 feet 4. That was the fifth-best jump in the nation by a high school athlete last season.

His senior year seemed full of promise. He was making progress in the classroom, and his peers elected him social chairman of the student council. College football and track coaches were pursuing him, and Rollins was counting on a scholarship as his ticket to college.

But on Aug. 4, four days before his 18th birthday, he was arrested and charged with the murder of Rodriguez. Although he was released for insufficient evidence two days later, he was arrested again Aug. 28 while attending classes. Police had found the dead girl’s fingerprints on the car Rollins was driving the day she was killed.

Rollins was held in Kern County Juvenile Hall on $250,000 bail until Nov. 7. His bail was reduced to $100,000 a day after the preliminary hearing, at which he was ordered to stand trial as an adult on a murder charge. His family was able to make the lesser bail, so he returned home to help build a defense.

He decided to return to school, and administrators and the student body welcomed him with open arms. Gerald Johnson, the principal, is monitoring independent studies for Rollins in English and economics so that Rollins can work at home. He attends art and physical education classes on campus.

Carolann Hodges, Rollins’ counselor, said Rollins will have no trouble graduating on time and that he hopes to attend the University of Nevada in the fall.

“The school has expressed interest in him for track,” she said. “And he should be able to meet the academic requirements. I’m certainly rooting for him to make it.”

Despite the circumstances, Johnson said school officials had no objections to Rollins’ returning to school. He said very few parents expressed concerns.

“We’ve spent a lot of time talking about this issue because it is so unique to this small community,” Johnson said. “But there just aren’t many negatives involved. Everyone was glad to have him back. He was never a problem in the past and he isn’t one now. Offord is a popular and respected student-athlete. This whole thing has been a big shock.

“The publicity hasn’t been good for the school because it hurts our educational process,” he said. “But we’re maintaining the philosophy that Offord is innocent until proven guilty.”

Rollins was released from jail before the football season ended, but he elected not to rejoin the team, saying he was not in good enough shape to compete.

He has started preparing for track season by running and working on his leaping. He says track is his favorite sport and expects it to take him far.

How far he is able to go, however, depends on the outcome of his trial. If convicted, Rollins will face a minimum of 25 to 30 years in prison with the possibility of parole only after two-thirds of the sentence has been served.

“You better believe that I’m very scared about what could happen,” Rollins said. “I guess I’m just lucky I have people around me who I can talk to about this. They’re helping me get through a very difficult time. But I can tell you that I’m a different person since all of this happened. When you’re in this position, you can’t help but see things a lot different.”

Many aspects of the case are unclear, and Rollins is not allowed to answer questions pertaining to the trial. When he was arrested, Rollins refused to make a statement, claiming his Miranda rights.

According to sheriff’s reports, Rodriguez was shot in the back and in the left ear and her body was dumped in a wooded area next to a canal that runs along California 46 east of Interstate 5 near Lost Hills. The bullet in her back was a .22 caliber that lodged in her chest. The bullet to the ear went through her forehead and was not found, but investigators believe it was from the same gun.

The time of death has not been determined. Rodriguez’s body was found late at night.

Rollins said he spoke with Rodriguez on the phone the day she was killed but that he had not seen her. Rodriguez lived in Shafter, a nearby town, and attended Shafter Continuation School.

Rodriguez’s mother, Myriam Rodriguez, told police that her daughter talked to Rollins on the morning of Aug. 2 and made plans to meet him at a park in Shafter. Myriam said her daughter left shortly after that phone conversation and that she never saw her again.

Rollins’ mother, Joy Rollins, testified at the preliminary hearing that Offord was at home with her that day until she left at noon. Andre Harrison, a family friend, said he went to Rollins’ home at 2:15 p.m. and was with him until 6 p.m.

The prosecution has said it will try to establish a time of death of between noon and 2 p.m. The defense maintains that Rollins would have had a difficult time committing a murder and driving from Wasco to Shafter to Lost Hills and back--50 total miles--in two hours.

The day before the murder, Rollins was in Los Angeles visiting his divorced father, Offord Rollins III. He drove his father’s car, a 1981 Oldsmobile, back to Wasco on Aug. 1 with the intention of returning to Los Angeles two days later.

Investigators found two sets of Rodriguez’s fingerprints on the right rear fender of the car. They also found bits of a tamarisk plant, a feathery-flowered shrub, in the car. Tamarisk is common in the Lost Hills area, but not in Wasco.

The trial was scheduled to begin Jan. 13, but was delayed after investigators believed they found fibers in the Rollins car that match fibers on the victim’s clothes.

Attorneys on both sides agree that the evidence is circumstantial.

“This is one of the most challenging cases I have ever had,” said Lisa Green, deputy district attorney. “I do believe Offord committed the murder, but it will not be easy to prove. Circumstantial cases are the toughest for juries to accept.”

Green, who has worked in the district attorney’s office for eight years, handles homicide and sexual-assault cases. She said this is one of her highest-profile cases.

Publicity surrounding the trial has grown since Rollins dismissed his original attorney, Harry Reynolds, last September in favor of Timothy Lemucchi, a widely known criminal lawyer in Bakersfield. Lemucchi has handled more than 30 murder cases in Kern County.

Although the Rollins family cannot afford to pay Lemucchi his normal rate, he took the case, he said, because Rollins was being unfairly treated.

“It’s a fascinating case, and I’m interested in it for the same reasons as everyone else,” said Lemucchi, who has worked in the area for 27 years. “Here’s a kid with a charmed life, and then you have a brutal murder with a lot of circumstantial evidence. I just felt justice needed to be served here. And also I don’t think he did it. What was his motive?”

Green declined to comment on a possible motive, saying that will be one of the main issues of the trial.

“It doesn’t bother me that Offord is a popular athlete and only 18,” Green said. “What you have is a vicious murder of a girl who had her whole life ahead of her. The Rodriguez family deserves an answer.”

Rollins lives with his mother and younger sister, Annell, is a modest two-bedroom duplex in Wasco. His parents have been divorced for many years. Joy is on leave from her job with the electric company so she can devote more time to the trial. Annell is a sophomore at Wasco High.

Joy and Annell share one bedroom and Offord has the other. The walls of his room are covered with posters of popular sports figures. He has dozens of trophies and medals for his achievements in football and track.

But these days it is hard for him and his family to concentrate on anything but the trial.

“I thought I was dealing with this whole thing pretty well,” Joy said. “But right before his trial was supposed to begin (Jan. 13) I got very nervous. I guess I wasn’t as prepared as I thought I was.”

While Rollins was in jail, Wasco students hung signs proclaiming his innocence. Some wore black bracelets in his honor. A fund-raiser was held to raise money for legal counsel.

Local media outlets have followed the case, but the attention has not seemed to alter many opinions.

Green says the case would normally have been moved because of all the pretrial publicity.

“But the defense hasn’t ask for a change of venue because the publicity has tilted in their favor,” she said.

Most students interviewed for this story seem to believe Rollins.

“I’m glad that Offord decided to come back to school,” said Katie Braun, a sophomore. “He is one of the most polite boys I know. He’ll always hold the door open for a girl. He’s just nice to everyone.”

Sara Voth, a sophomore tennis and volleyball player, said she knows Rollins and has a hard time believing he could commit murder.

“At the same time, in the back of your mind, you wonder whether he did it or not,” Voth said. “I know some students I’ve talked to think he might be guilty.”

Rollins said that some students have told his sister that there is a murderer on campus.

“I’ve learned that it is very important not to judge people until I know all the facts for sure,” Rollins said. “I think twice now how I treat someone I don’t know. All of this has really made me think.

“I’m definitely a different person now,” he said. “I think I’ve matured.”