BENICIA — Authorities arrested a local resident charged with killing a 79-year-old man in Oakland last May, but not until after the suspect jumped from a three-story apartment building in a failed attempt to get away.
Rodney Latin, 56, was injured when he jumped from his apartment on the top of East 4th Street in Benicia last June 11. The U.S. Marshals task force transported him to a local hospital, where he remains, authorities said. Once Latin is cleared, he’s set to be booked without bail at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, court records show.
Last May 6, Latin allegedly stabbed to death Johnny Lee Perry over some sort of personal dispute that investigators haven’t publicly revealed.
Perry was riding a bicycle at around 6 p.m. when Latin passed him in a Honda Accord. Latin stopped, got out, and attacked Perry with a knife and “blunt object,” authorities said in court filings.
Perry was just four months from his 80th birthday, yet still regularly attended a local gymnasium to lift weights and impart wisdom on other gymgoers. A memorial posted at the fitness center he frequented describes him as a “man of strength in every sense of the word.”
“He lived with discipline, determination, and a heart of gold,” it says. “He inspired many through his dedication to fitness, his unwavering work ethic, and the love he showed to family and friends.”
Court records indicate that Latin has allegedly stabbed someone at the rate of at least once per decade since becoming an adult. In 2009, he was sentenced to four years in prison for stabbing his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend during a confrontation outside her home in Oakland. In 2016, he confronted two of his nephews, stabbed both of them and damaged their X-box, then served a two-year prison term for it, according to court records.
Latin was identified as a suspect in Perry’s homicide because the Honda Accord was registered to him, and because pings from his cellphone hit towers in the area, authorities said. When authorities came to Benicia to arrest him, he allegedly ran to the East 4th Street apartments, and jumped off a balcony in an attempt to flee.
Latin has not yet entered a plea due to his hospitalization, according to court records.