Man is charged with killing high school soccer player in Winnetka

A 24-year-old Calabasas man was charged Wednesday with killing a 17-year-old El Camino Real High School soccer player, who was shot to death in the frontyard of his home in Winnetka.

Jason Alejandro Schumann was charged with one count of murder with a gun use allegation in the fatal Jan. 11 shooting of Francisco "Pancho" Rodriguez Jr. outside his home in the 6900 block of Cozycroft Avenue.

Elizabeth Ibarra, 19, who also was arrested on suspicion of murder, was not charged and instead held without bail on a probation violation.

Los Angeles Police Department detectives said the motive for the killing was personal, but refused to specify the reason for what they called a targeted killing of Rodriguez, a well-regarded goalie at the Woodland Hills campus.

But law enforcement sources said the jealous Schumann was infuriated by text messages and other information exchanged between Rodriguez and Ibarra and decided to kill him.

According to several sources, Ibarra has admitted to investigators that she was the redheaded woman who knocked on the door of Rodriguez’s home shortly before he was shot as he stood in the frontyard.

Ibarra had met the soccer player at a party and then began hanging out with him last summer while Schumann was jailed for identity forgery, sources said. On Ibarra’s Facebook page, Rodriguez last July made a sexual comment about a photo of her in a skin-tight blouse.

Ibarra was sent to jail last fall for two felony counts of forgery. She got 180 days in jail Nov. 17, but because of jail overcrowding was out Jan. 4.

While she was in jail, Schumann saw texts and other communications from Rodriguez on her phone that suggested the 17-year-old student and the mother of his baby were more than friends.

A week after Ibarra was released from jail, she went to see Rodriguez, knocking on the door at his  home. He stepped outside to talk to her in the yard.

Police say that is when Schumann, who had been waiting in a green Ford Explorer, allegedly shot him several times.

ALSO:

Severed hand found near head under Hollywood sign

Arrests made in killing of five transients in 2008 massacre

Severed head, hand discovery ‘a real-life Sopranos,’ hiker says

-- Richard Winton

Photo: Elizabeth Ibarra, left, and Jason Schumann

Credit: Los Angeles Police Department