Matthew Cox | Inside True Crime Podcast
Corrupt Cop Becomes Inmate — and Kept It Secret (Until Now)
16 Nov 2025
Chapter 1: What is the background of Robert Rodriguez's life?
I'm an ex-CO that was in prison. These interviews are going to let them know who I really was. They don't know to this day. Mom was on drugs. My father got killed when I was 10. How did that happen? Got in a fight with some guy over a girl, and they ended up killing him. That's the story we got.
Okay.
You know, I was 10 years old. I don't know for sure, for sure, but that's the story we got. So with that, like even before that, I was kind of a wild kid. You know, like in grammar school, I was in sixth grade, and that's the first time I actually pulled a gun out on somebody in sixth grade. How do you get a gun in sixth grade? So I lived across the street from my school.
It was School 77 in Buffalo, New York. And my aunt lived across the street. I was at my aunt's house. She had a .38 long nose. And... I had this kid in my school. He was a bigger guy.
Chapter 2: How did Robert's childhood experiences shape his behavior?
He was in the same grade. He was like sixth grade. He was in the same grade. He was a bigger dude and he was always trying to fuck with me. I was like, damn, man. One day I was sitting across the street because I got out of school. Everybody was getting out of school. I'm sitting on the porch and I'm like, you know what? I'm about to show him that you ain't going to fuck with me no more.
I literally ran in my aunt's house, ran upstairs, grabbed a gun, came outside. Ran in the middle of the street. He was coming out, getting on the bus, on the school bus. And I just upped it, aimed it at the bus. And the bus driver just threw her hands up. And then my, well, I called her my sister. She was like my street sister. She was with my brothers. She was with my brothers.
So she comes running down and she's screaming like, Rob, give me the gun, give me the gun. So I turn around, I throw her the gun and I just take off running. Ran to like a, it was a boys and girls club called Butler Mitchell in Buffalo. And I ran there and just sat in there until the police came.
They ended up coming and finding me and charging me with possession of a weapon, but they never found the gun. So, you know, they just put me on probation, no gun, sent me to counseling. And going through counseling and the way I was, like I was a hothead as a kid. And I can't blame it on nobody. I can't say, oh, my mother was on drugs, so that made me like that. It was just me.
Because my brother wasn't like that. We all lived in the same household. It was just how I was. So... They labeled me, well, the counselor said I was homicidal and that I needed to like seek more counseling and all this stuff. You know, the eval of it when you go to your little evaluation and they tell you that. So in sixth grade, they labeled me as homicidal. They sent me to this other school.
It was like not an alternative. It was kind of like a better school, to be honest with you. It was a magnet school, a Native American magnet school in Buffalo, Texas. And it was cool there. I was just chilling. But prior to that, before they did all of that, at 10 years old, I started selling work because my mom was on drugs. It was me, my brother, my little sister. We didn't have nothing.
You open the fridge, it's a thing of baking soda and a thing of water. That's it. You know what I'm saying? So there was a little spot across the street from us called Helping Hands where they would feed the homeless. So we would have to go over there and eat. So I'm sitting there one day on the block with my cousin, and I see my cousin running back and forth, running back and forth.
And then he comes up to me one night, and he pulls out some money. And I'm like, damn, where you get that from? He was like, oh, yo, my uncle. He was like, Uncle Tommy told me, yo, work for me, and I got you. So I'm like, damn. I was like, can I get on with it? He was like, yeah, I'll put you on. I'll talk to him. We'll put you on.
So how he did it was he was like, okay, during the day, now mind you, I'm 10 years old. He was like, during the day, my cousin's going to work. And at night, I'm going to work. So I would go in my uncle's house. I'll sit in the dining room with him. And he had a window that he had cracked like this that basically went through the alleyway to the back of the house.
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Chapter 3: What led to Robert's involvement in illegal activities?
Started working little odd jobs because I didn't know nobody in Jersey, so I couldn't sell weed no more. You know what I mean? So I was just working odd jobs. It wasn't working. We ended up moving back to Buffalo. When we moved back to Buffalo, I started selling weed again. So we're in the house. We're selling weed. I met this guy. He was a big-time dude.
You know, he passed away, but he was a big-time dude in the game. And... He started dating my sister. So we were just chilling. We didn't have no real business thing going on, but he would bring me like a pound of weed and be like, here, that's for you. You know what I'm saying? So I'm like, all right, bet. Thank you. You know, I already had a pound that I was selling.
I would break it down into nickel bags, the whole pound. just break the whole pound down the nickel. So I'm making a couple thousand off of that. And then he would just throw me an extra one. So we're sitting there one day, and because the feds was watching him, they kept seeing him come back and forth to my house.
And when they were seeing that, I guess they thought I was a part of what he had going on. And how old were you? I was 17 at this time.
Okay.
17. So they end up kicking in my door. They end up raiding. They raided all of his spots simultaneously. But they kick in my door, and this is what kind of made me change a little bit. It kind of made me start going the right way. Because when they kicked in my door, my son was probably a year and some change maybe. He wasn't even walking yet. He was just standing up on the edge of the crib.
And when they kicked in my door, one of the FBI dudes put a shotgun in my son's face. Like he's literally standing in the crib and he has a shotgun, swing it around and aimed it right at my son's face. And I'm like, you know, I'm handcuffed in the dining room, but I'm looking into the room and I'm like, yo, get that shit out of his face. And he was, you know, shut the fuck up, whatever.
I was like, yo, that right there, like, it made me be like, you know what? This shit ain't for me. This shit ain't for me. So me and my baby mom, I was like, yo, let's move back to Jersey. I don't know nobody there. You don't know nobody. We'll go to Jersey. Went there, started working odd jobs again, wasn't getting the money that I was used to getting.
So I'm walking past, I'm literally downtown Patterson, New Jersey, and I'm walking past a recruiting station. And I'm looking and it's like, oh, $25,000 signing bonus, this and that. So I'm like, damn, this was in 99. And I'm looking. I was like, man, I should try it out. So I walked in. I started talking to the Army recruiter.
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Chapter 4: How did Robert's life change after the car accident?
And I'm talking to one of the guys that's a VA career center person. And I'm like, you know, I'm looking for a job, but I need something that's good, like that's going to pay bills, not these little odd jobs that I'm struggling out here. So he was like, yo, the only thing I got right now is a prison. He was like, man, the prisons are hiring like crazy.
He was like, and your ex-military, they'll hire you like that. So I'm like, you think so? He was like, oh, I know. So he said, man, go in there, go for the interview. I'll set it up. And I promise you, they'll hire you on the spot. So I do that.
I go into the interview, speaking to a lieutenant, and then he's looking like, you know, my little bootleg resume that I made up, you know, and he's looking at it. He was like, oh, you're ex-military. I was like, yes, sir. He was like, were you combat? I was like, yeah, combat arms, 464 armor. He was like, oh, okay. He was like, man, you're hired. That was it. There was no conversation.
He was like, you're hired. I was like, for real? He was like, yeah, I'm going to set it up for you to go to BCOT, which is basic correctional officer training. In Georgia, it's only 30 days. You go to basic correctional officer training for 30 days. You don't need nothing but a high school diploma. That's it. So he set it up.
I went with a class to BCOT, did that for the 30 days, came back, and then I started working in a prison. I was working at Rogers State Prison. That was the first prison I started working at. How many inmates? Total of, I think, 1,200 to 1,400 inmates on the whole compound. How many staff? Not enough. They probably had, like, one officer in each building. Okay. You know what I'm saying?
Then you got your utility officers and your lieutenants. Yeah, rec. Yeah. You got your rec. So we're talking about, like, 50 guys, 60 guys? Probably. Okay. And then you got your outside detail guys. So, yeah, it was crazy. What did they start at? At that time, when I started there, it was at, like, I think $30,000 a year. What year? In 2003. 2003. That's not bad. No, in Georgia, it wasn't. Yeah.
Especially in Georgia. Because then, like, for a while, I was still renting an apartment in Hinesville, Georgia. And then one of the lieutenants come up to me, like, you ever thought about living around here? Like, it was in the middle of the country. And I'm like, nah, I never thought about it. He said, man, you won't have to pay rent. You know, everything's free.
You just got to live next to the prison.
You work overtime.
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Chapter 5: What were the conditions like for Robert in the county jail?
You know, they was like, when we pull in, because it was a little split driveway between where they were at and where I was at. They was like, the cars will pull in. They'll beep. You come out, clean the car, park them, put the keys in this little rack, blah, blah, blah. You know, so I'm like, all right, cool. This is sweet. I'm not in prison. I'm not in jail. I'm out here.
I was doing the right thing. Every day they needed me, I was doing my thing. I ended up becoming really good friends with a guy named Captain Popple. He was the captain over the Jessup Sheriff's Department. So me and him started talking. He starts asking me about my case.
Chapter 6: How did Robert navigate his time in Jackson State Prison?
He says, I'm going to look into it. I'm going to talk to the judge. That don't sound right. And then he was telling me about the guy. The guy Richard.
Okay.
He's like, oh, I know him. He's well-known around here. He's a troublemaker. He's this. He's that. He's a short dude. He's shorter than me. They're the worst. Black hair.
Chapter 7: What strategies did Robert use to survive in prison?
You know what I'm saying? So if you were to see him and me, you would think we were kind of related because he looked like a Hispanic dude. He looked like he was Latin. So, okay, he's telling me about him. He's a troublemaker, whatever, whatever. So I'm like, yeah, okay. Whatever. I don't believe you're going to do nothing for me. Whatever. It's cool. We got real cool.
So in the little room that I was in, I had my own little refrigerator. I had my own TV. Because, you know, while I'm sitting there waiting for a car to pull up to wash, there's nothing for me to do. So they made sure I had a little TV, a little refrigerator.
Chapter 8: How did Robert's relationships with inmates impact his experience?
You know what I'm saying? And then he went and bought or I don't know if he bought it or not, but he brought me this little ass grill. And he was like, yo, instead of putting your money into the county jail, just have your people send your money here, cash.
And when you want something, take one of the unmarked cars, go to Walmart, get your little meats or whatever, and then come back and you can cook right there. And it's funny because if I would have heard somebody saying this shit, I would have been like, you full of shit. There's no fucking way they let you do that. But that's exactly how they treated me.
Now, maybe it was the perks because I used to be a CO. And they were just like, you know, we trust you a little bit more than we trust other people. I don't know if that was it, but that was it. That's how they treated me at the county jail. So the captain would come up to me like, man, I don't want you to leave. If it was up to me, I'll let you do your whole time here.
So he was like, let me make a few phone calls, see what I could do. So I'm thinking like, oh, shit, that's sweet. That's not going to happen. No, it's never going to happen. I was going to say, there's no way. There's no fucking way. So I'm there for four months. He held me there as long as he could. After that, he comes up to me and said, man, I can't keep you. You got to go through processing.
You got to go through, you know. So I'm just like, all right, whatever. Four months go by. They send me to reception, a prison called Jackson State Prison in Georgia. When they pull up into that prison, it's a big ass parking lot. They pull in. Everybody gets out the van or the bus or whatever. You're still shackled and all that. But you're all in the parking lot just walking around. Inmates.
There's no like, yo, you guys stay in here. Stay right here. Don't move. They get you off the van and they say, yo, stay close because they're going to call your name. And everybody's just walking around, kicking it with each other, talking shit. I was scared to death, man. Why? I was because... Do you think these guys, somebody's going to recognize you? How can you not recognize me?
I mean, I... It's been three years since I was a CO now. Yeah. This happened in 2006. I didn't go to prison until... I didn't go to Jackson until 2010. It was February 2010 when I actually went to reception. All right? So I'm like, I got kind of a little... couple of years span to hopefully people forgot me. So that's what I was basing it off of. Like, okay, hopefully they forgot me.
So I'm standing there, I'm scared shitless. I'm like, oh my God, if somebody recognize, what can I say? There's nothing I can say. Because everybody's going to turn on me now. Even the guys that I came there with and was laughing and joking in the fucking van. Somebody comes up and say, yo, you used to be a sergeant. It's over with. Nobody did. The whole, I'm sitting there, I'm chilling.
No issue so far. I'm like, good. I made it. I go inside. I made it through the parking lot. Made it through the parking lot. I go into the, they call our names. We go inside one big room with the showers, stand in a circle. They tell us all to strip. Now, what I thought I heard him say was strip down to your boxers.
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