Jose Eduardo Dominguez-Garcia, a 27-year-old Wisconsin man, has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for the murder of his pregnant girlfriend, Rosaly Cindy Chavarria Rodriguez, 25. Rodriguez’s remains were found in an abandoned farmhouse in Wisconsin Dells, approximately 55 miles northwest of Madison, in October 2020. She had been missing for several months prior to the discovery.
On January 8, Dominguez-Garcia entered a no-contest plea to a charge of first-degree reckless homicide. As part of his plea deal, additional charges of homicide of an unborn child and hiding a corpse were dropped. Chippewa County Circuit Judge James M. Isaacson handed down the sentence on Friday, which includes 25 years of initial confinement followed by 15 years of extended supervision. Dominguez-Garcia was also credited with 525 days of time served.
In addition to his sentence, Dominguez-Garcia was ordered to avoid contact with all victims, their residences, or places of employment. The sentence fell short of the maximum 60-year penalty that Rodriguez’s family had hoped for. Her parents expressed their disappointment, with her father, Jorge Chavarria, stating that Dominguez-Garcia had taken two lives – his daughter’s and her unborn child’s.
Dominguez-Garcia was initially charged with murder in December 2021, despite his location being unknown at the time. He was apprehended in November 2023 in Gladstone, Missouri, after police noticed a vehicle with a stolen license plate. The murder charge was later reduced to first-degree reckless homicide.
Rodriguez was last seen alive on July 2, 2020, while working at Sprecher’s restaurant in Lake Delton, Wisconsin. Dominguez-Garcia collected her final paycheck from the restaurant on July 23, 2020, the day after his last day of work there. He claimed to authorities that they had broken up on July 4 after he discovered she had been unfaithful and that another man was the father of her unborn child.
Rodriguez’s red 2003 Volkswagen Jetta was found in August 2020, with evidence suggesting a recently deceased body had been placed in the trunk. Her body was eventually discovered in October 2020 in a purple suitcase at an abandoned farmhouse in Wheaton, following a tip from an informant in a drug case. It took nearly a year to confirm the remains were Rodriguez’s.
Rodriguez, who was approximately eight weeks pregnant at the time of her death, leaves behind a 9-year-old daughter who now resides with Rodriguez’s mother in Peru. The family has been unable to hold a proper burial for Rodriguez. In response to this, Judge Isaacson ordered that her body be released to the family.