ELDORADO—A man with a record of complaints and convictions of drugs and violence is working his way through the Saline County court system after being jailed on multiple counts of murder.
Rodney E. Black, 56, remains behind bars at Saline County Detention Center, jailed on the afternoon of Friday, April 17, after authorities say he stabbed his girlfriend, Latisha Reidelberger, 28, and left her to bleed to death in their housing apartment in Eldorado.
To compound the situation, Reidelberger was several months pregnant with Black’s unborn child.
When authorities were able to confirm that Black was totally cognizant of the fact that not only was Reidelberger pregnant with his child, but that he displayed alleged disregard over it, he was in deeper trouble than ever.
As a result, Black was charged with three counts of First Degree Murder in Reidelberger’s death, and three counts of Intentional Homicide of an Unborn Child. All six counts are Class M felonies, each punishable by 20-60 years in prison, none being probationable.
If found guilty of even one count, Black, at his age, will likely die in prison.
Started as beating, escalated to stabbing
According to paperwork filed by Special Agent Jason Colp of Illinois State Police, the investigating agency in the murder case, the situation emerged at 1:29 p.m. when Eldorado dispatch received a 911 call from an unidentified person from the housing complex, located at 1900 N. Main in Eldorado.
The caller reported that a black male subject, later identified as Rodney Black, was beating a female subject, later identified as Latisha Reidelberger, in Apartment 4C.
Apparently the call was lost, and Eldorado dispatch, Colp noted, contacted the caller at approximately 1:30 p.m. The caller stated that the male had stabbed the female multiple times, and that she was covered in blood. The caller further advised that the black man was still at the scene.
Witnesses at the scene tell Disclosure that it took many minutes for a police officer to arrive at the scene. The first mention Colp makes in his report of a police officer is of Eldorado’s Clint Hooper arriving at the scene; however, those at the housing units told Disclosure that the first officer to arrive on the scene was an unidentified one from Harrisburg…meaning that wait time was drive time from the ’burg to ’rado, which is at least 8 to 10 minutes when a cop drives it.
Colp said it was Hooper, however, who located Black standing outside of apartment 3C, and took him into custoday.
Hooper advised that Black appeared to have blood on his clothing.
A strange thing to yell about
A later interview of the caller, Colp wrote in his report, revealed that said caller was working on the front porch of apartment 4C when he heard Reidelberger screaming from the top floor of the apartment.
The caller stated that he heard Reidelberger yelling “Quit stabbing me, you’re going to kill me!”
Despite this being a very strange—and somewhat contrived—thing to say while a person is in the process of being stabbed (a person doesn’t usually yell out the manner of injury they’re sustaining while they’re sustaining it; they ordinarily just scream in pain and/or outrage), this is what was reported.
The caller then said he entered the apartment and went up the stairs to the scond floor, at which time he observed Black exit the northwest bedroom with blood on his right hand.
The caller said he then saw Reidelberger lying on the floor inside the bedroom; she was covered in blood, and was asking him to help her.
However, the caller instead followed Black outside, where the caller made the first 911 call. The caller then told Colp that he asked two women who had come up to the residence to go help Reidelberger.
Other than noting that at approximately 6:11 p.m., Hooper transported Black to Saline County Detention Center, that was the sum of Colp’s report.
Gruesome details
Witnesses at the scene, however, have given Disclosure details, and some of them are gruesome.
These witnesses advised that Reidelberger was caught completely off-guard when Black came to the apartment, because he’d apparently either been kicked out or told by Reidelberger to stay away from her and the children living with them.
Despite what many of her friends said, Reidelberger had not gone to the Saline County circuit clerk’s office in an attempt to obtain an Order of Protection against Black at any time in the days or weeks before the attack.
Whether or not she had gone to the Anna Bixby Women’s Center for help, as some have asserted, remained unknown; the center itself is under fire and whether they’ve been able to assist victims of domestic violence or not has remained somewhat in question of late, but if complaints are any indication, they at the very least haven’t been doing as much as they have been able to in the past.
Reidelberger’s and Black’s children were present at the apartment that day, said friends.
Unfortunately, they were witness to the situation, which, the witnesses said, happened very quickly.
Whether or not Black was allegedly “beating” Reidelberger before he was alleged to have stabbed her remains unclear.
However, according to reliable sources, the alleged attack wasn’t just a “stabbing.” The sources said that Reidelberger was very nearly disemboweled, with her pregnant stomach cut severely, in what appeared to be an effort to get at the unborn child…or at least make a point that the child was the actual victim.
Witnesses stated that despite the ultimate police presence, Black “wandered around” the grounds outside the apartment, with blood evident on him and his children screaming.
People were “keeping an eye on him” in this wandering, but he reportedly never went far. Witnesses said Black appeared glassy-eyed and ‘dazed.’ No one opined whether they believed he was under the influence of anything.
However, when the police arrived, Black, witnesses said, “took off running.” He was brought to the ground by pursuing police, who used a TASER to stop him.
Ambulance crew did their best
It’s unclear how many stab wounds Black was accused of inflicting on Reidelberger.
She was taken to Ferrell Hospital in Eldorado, but neither she, nor the infant could be saved, despite the commendable efforts of the ambulance crew who were actually the first officials to arrive on the scene and put forth everything they could in order to keep Reidelberger alive.
Black, as mentioned, was taken to SCDC and housed awaiting questioning. This occurred throughout the weekend. Authorities were seeking to learn two specific things: If he was aware of Reidelberger’s pregnancy, and if he was alleged to have taken the actions he did despite it.
In the end, it appeared that both were the case.
Black’s first count of First Degree Murder was that he stabbed her “multiple times about the body with a knife,” thereby causing her death. The second count reiterates, but says with intent to do great bodily harm, stabbed her thus causing her death. The third count reiterates, but qualifies that when he stabbed her, he knew such acts created a strong probability of death or great bodily harm, thus causing her death. These distinctions are largely for the benefit of the jury, who will be tasked (should there be a trial) with seeing to it that each qualifier is met.
Intentional Homicide of Unborn Child
However, in the fourth through sixth counts of murder, the specifics get more detailed.
The first Intentional Homicide count states that Black, knowing Reidelberger was pregnant and with intent to cause the death of or do great bodily harm to her, stabbed her multiple times about the body with a knife, thereby causing the death of the unborn child.
The second Intentional Homicide charge lists that Black’s “acts would cause death or great bodily harm to Reidelberger or her unborn child,” and that he stabbed Reidelberger multiple times about the body with a knife, thereby causing the death of the unborn child.
The third count carries the “created a strong probability of death or great bodily harm” phrase, as the third First Degree Murder of Reidelberger count does.
Black’s bond was set at a million dollars.
Lowell Tison was appointed as defense counsel for Black.
Black was scheduled for a preliminary hearing on May 14.
Being pregnant can be fatal
Years ago (in 2001), a study appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association that suggested that the number of pregnancy-associated deaths by homicide is greater than homicides committed against women who were not pregnant.
Homicide, opined a Maryland doctor in the article, was the leading cause of death among women who were pregnant, and accounted for 20 percent of deaths among that group, compared with six percent of deaths among nonpregnant women of reproductive age. The study was conducted between 1993 and 1998.
It is possible that that statistic is much higher at this point in time, 17 years later.
The deaths occurred at the hands of husbands or domestic partners, with the risk of dying from homicide being twice as great in pregnant women as it is in nonpregnant women.