Pennsylvania Gambler Convicted of Convenience Store Clerk Murder

• Jafet De Jesus Rodriguez was convicted of murdering clerk during 2020 store robbery
• GPS, DNA, and video evidence linked Rodriguez to the scene
• Victim’s family filed a civil suit over gaming machines

A jury in Luzerne County, Pa., has determined that a local drug dealer, Jafet De Jesus Rodriguez, shoved a convenience store clerk into a closet during a 2020 robbery and shot him dead in cold blood, The Citizens’ Voice reports.

Rodriguez, 44, was convicted Thursday of murdering Ashokkumar Patel at Craig’s Food Mart in Hazleton, Pa., before robbing the store of $14K and leaving him to die.

Patel, a father of three, had been in the job for just one week. He was able to crawl to the phone to call 911 after he was shot but died before he was connected.

Frequent Player

Testimony from Hazleton Detective Ryan Mariano revealed that Rodriguez was a frequent player of the store’s gaming machines. Rodriguez admitted during questioning that he had previously lost a large amount of money gambling at Craig’s Food Mart, although he’d also walked away with about $3K in winnings weeks before the robbery.

Prosecutors said that’s how he knew there would be a large amount of cash on the premises, kept for instant payouts, and little security.

Rodriguez was arrested in January 2021 after authorities executed a search warrant at his home. There they found multiple cellphones and nearly $3K in cash.

Police also found clothes at the carwash that matched some of those worn by the assailant during the robbery — Rodriguez was captured on the store’s security video wearing a red and orange sweatshirt and black gloves, his face obscured by a mask with white skull teeth. A forensic analysis of a bloodstain on one item of clothing showed a DNA mix from both Rodriguez and the victim.

Rodriguez now faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole.

‘Unsafe Mini Casino’

A separate civil lawsuit filed by Patel’s family in 2022 named the store’s owners and the company that supplied them with skill-gaming machines, Georgia-based Pace-O-Matic.

The lawsuit also argues Pace-O-Matic’s gaming machines are illegal, a point that remains unresolved under Pennsylvania law and is the subject of ongoing litigation.