Left: Diamonte Haithcoats (DeKalb County Jail). Right: Shaniyah Rodriguez. Inset: Milliani Rodriguez (Facebook/Rhonda Thompson).
A Georgia man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for shooting and killing his pregnant girlfriend and daughter, who was born but only survived for some four months.
A jury on Friday found 24-year-old Diamonte Haithcoats guilty of malice murder, two counts of felony murder, aggravated assault-family violence and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony in the deaths of 20-year-old Shaniyah Rodriguez and their baby Milliani Rodriguez, the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office said in a press release.
Immediately following the verdict, Dekalb County Superior Court Judge Yolanda Parker-Smith sentenced Haithcoats to two life sentences, without the possibility of parole, the DA said.
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Deputies with the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office responded to a shooting around 5:45 a.m. Feb. 2, 2023, at a condominium complex on Old Singleton Lane in the Atlanta suburb of Clarkston. A resident heard gunfire and went out to investigate. He found a woman later identified as Rodriguez suffering from a gunshot wound to the head.
Paramedics arrived and rushed Rodriguez to the hospital, where doctors performed an emergency cesarean section to deliver her baby. Rodriguez died two days later. Milliani died on June 19, 2023.
Investigators found seven rifle shell casings on the scene, and the witness said he saw a dark-colored SUV driving away after the shooting. Street cameras captured a dark blue Hyundai Palisade leaving the complex. Days later, they found the abandoned Palisade. It had been stolen.
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Rodriguez’s phone had been connected to the vehicle’s Bluetooth just minutes before the 911 call, prosecutors said. Detectives turned on her phone and it automatically connected to the Palisade.
Detectives later learned Rodriguez told a friend her relationship with Haithcoats was falling apart and she feared for his safety. They also placed Haithcoats at the scene via his cellphone.
Adrienne Rodriguez, Shaniyah Rodriguez’s mother and Millani’s grandmother, testified at the trial, according to a courtroom report from Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB.
She began to suspect Haithcoats in the days after the slaying, so she called him and made a recording which the jurors heard.
“Who did this, Monte?” Adrienne Rodriguez reportedly asked.
“I have no idea. No idea,” Haithcoats replied.
The grief-stricken mother and grandmother became emotional when she spoke of all the effort she put into saving Milliani.
“I tried everything to fix that mistake,” she reportedly testified through tears. “That baby was supposed to be here.”
