Jealous rage led to tragedy

A mother's hit-and-run death might have been the result of another woman's jealous rage.

Courtney L. Antillon, 19, misunderstood when she saw her live-in boyfriend exchanging information Monday with a 35-year-old woman on South 24th Street, her mother said.

Ana Rodriguez de Lopez-Cardenas was exchanging insurance information with Antillon's boyfriend after a fender-bender accident near 24th and E Streets.

When Antillon drove past and spotted the two outside La Michoacana, an ice cream parlor, she made a U-turn and drove toward them.

Antillon has a volatile temper, said her mother and sister, and frequently worries that her boyfriend cheats on her.

Her car nicked her boyfriend, Israel Francisco-Gonzalo, before slamming into Rodriguez. He suffered minor injuries. Rodriguez suffered massive head and internal injuries and died later that night at a hospital.

Riding in Antillon's back seat was Ivan, the 2-year-old son she had with Francisco-Gonzalo.

Antillon made several frantic phone calls to her mother, Debra Perez, after speeding away from the scene, where Rodriguez lay dying in the street, her children by her side.

“With her driving down 24th and seeing him talking to a girl, I assume she snapped,” Perez said.

Antillon, 19, is charged with manslaughter, failure to stop and render aid and second-degree assault. The assault charge is for the injury to Francisco-Gonzalo.

A Douglas County judge today set her bail at $1 million. She would have to pay $100,000, or 10 percent of her bail, to be released from the Douglas County Correctional Center.

Antillon's cousin Diana Dandridge, 23, was a passenger in the car and has been charged with being an accessory to a felony. Dandridge is being held on $10,000 - or 10 percent of her $100,000 bail.

From jail, Antillon cried Thursday while talking to reporters. She said she kept playing the incident over in her head.

“I'm not good,” she said, tears streaming down her face. “It's never going to go away.”

She denied trying to run down her boyfriend and said she drove away from the scene because she was scared and didn't know what to do.

Rodriguez simply stepped out into the path of the traffic, Antillon said.

After the car sped away, Rodriguez's children — Stephany, 13, and Joseph, 8 — rushed to their dying mother's side.

“I remember hitting her,” Antillon said. “I seen two people run to her. I didn't know they were her kids.”

Regarding Rodriguez's children, Antillon said: “I'm sorry, and I hope one day they can forgive me.”

A witness gave chase and was able to get the license plate number before returning to the scene in front of La Michoacana at 24th and E Streets.

“I'm scared,” Antillon said at the jail. “But I want whatever happens to happen. If I get a life sentence, I get a life sentence.”

Antillon was hysterical after the accident, her mother said, telling her that she hit a woman and the woman wasn't moving.

“She was kind of aiming at him to scare him,” Perez said. “Not to kill anyone, just to scare him and get his attention. I think she did it without thinking, and then when she hit her (Rodriguez), she freaked out.”

Antillon asked her mother to come get Ivan. Not telling police that Ivan was in the car was the only time she lied, Antillon said.

Perez said she drove her daughter to her grandmother's house to see Antillon's 5-year-old daughter, Samantha, before she turned herself in.

Antillon and Francisco-Gonzalo had fought earlier Monday, Perez said. The fight was over Francisco-Gonzalo's decision not to spend Father's Day with Antillon and Ivan. Antillon called her mother Monday afternoon during a break from her job at Wal-Mart to complain that Francisco-Gonzalo also refused her request to meet with her that night.

Angel Antillon, 20, said her younger sister often was angry with her boyfriend and jealous of potential rivals.

“She worried about Israel cheating. Sometimes he wouldn't answer the phone or he wouldn't want to hang out,” she said. “We saw it all the time, yelling and she'd kick him out.”

But the fights were never violent, she would cool off, and he would return, Angel Antillon said.

Twenty-fourth Street was a favorite cruising stretch for the Antillon sisters and their cousin, Dandridge, and the young women would spend time talking about men and having fun, Angel Antillon said.

Those carefree moments followed a difficult childhood for Antillon, who dropped out of high school, her family said.

She spent time in therapy for several years after being diagnosed as bipolar and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and ADHD, her mother said.

Antillon was close to her father, Mario Antillon, with whom she lived from age 3 to about 6 in Kearney, Neb. He killed himself in 2002 while in jail in Buffalo County on charges of robbery and use of a weapon to commit a felony.

Perez said her daughter tried to kill herself after her father died.

Courtney Antillon was given a prescription for antidepressants when she was 11 and took them until she became pregnant — at age 12.

According to Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine, the story that Antillon and Dandridge gave police was different from what the evidence indicated and what Francisco-Gonzalo said.

Kleine said the investigation indicates that Antillon was trying to run down Francisco-Gonzalo.

“Her actions in trying to hit the boyfriend warranted the manslaughter charge,” Kleine said.

Perez said she worries about how her daughter, who she said had never had a violation more serious than a speeding ticket, will hold up in jail.

It's painful, Perez said, to think about what her daughter did, about Rodriguez and her children, how the children were there to see their mother dying.

“She didn't consider what would happen to the other person (Rodriguez), Ivan and all the lives that would be affected,” Perez said. “I don't think she realized how many people that would hurt.”

Contact the writer:

444-1279, jason.kuiper@owh.com