HOUSTON – A Houston man who confessed to two murders after being arrested for rape has pleaded guilty to all three crimes in exchange for a sentence of 65 years in prison, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced Thursday.
Chris Dontrell Roddy, 31, was originally arrested in July 2020 for the sexual assault of a woman who was jogging in MacGregor Park in February of that year. DNA linked him to that rape, investigators said.
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While in the Harris County Jail awaiting trial, Ogg said a Houston police detective interviewed Roddy about the April 2017 death of Kithy Pagett, 34, a woman who was shot in the back of the head at her apartment in Greenspoint. Pagett was one of Roddy’s neighbors and the two knew each other, Ogg said. Investigators said Roddy’s DNA was found on a soda can near the crime scene, but because they were acquaintances, there was not enough evidence to charge him.
During the police interview, Roddy said he had recently had a religious conversion and confessed to killing Pagett. Investigators said he also confessed to killing Dantrell Burks, a stranger who was riding his bicycle at the same apartment complex, in 2016. Ogg said Roddy shot Burks multiple times, and the case had gone cold.
“No one in our community was safe until we got this man off the streets,” Ogg said. “We have ensured a conviction and ensured he is headed to prison for a long time.”
Roddy will not be eligible for parole until he has served 30 years in prison.
“He was hurting random people who were completely innocent with no rhyme or reason,” Assistant District Attorney Brett Batchelor, who prosecuted the case, said. “These victims he killed had families, they had children, who will never see them again. He caused a lot of hurt.”