USA - North Carolina. A jury recommended that Juan Carlos Rodriguez, 38, from El Salvador, be put to death.

A Forsyth County jury recommended that Juan Carlos Rodriguez, 38, from El Salvador, be put to death. Judge Stuart Albright of Forsyth Superior Court accepted the jury's recommendation and imposed the death sentence on Rodriguez for strangling his estranged wife to death and then decapitating her. Prosecutors allege that Juan Rodriguez beat Maria Magdalena Rodriguez, 31, on the night of Nov. 18, 2010, after she told him she was leaving him. Maria Rodriguez's body would be found on Dec. 12, 2010. Her skull was found May 29, 2013. The jury found Juan Rodriguez guilty on March 10 of 1st-degree murder, 1st-degree kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon. Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Martin said after the hearing that Maria Rodriguez's family opposed the death penalty based on their religious beliefs but supported the prosecution of Juan Rodriguez to the fullest extent of the law and understood that North Carolina has the death penalty. Martin said that prosecutors always consider the wishes of the family but that's not the determining factor in the decision to seek the death penalty.