Mattress Set Ablaze by Car Accident Survivor, Charged with Attempted Murder
Miami resident Carlos Rodriguez, 31, only has half of his head. His friends call him “Halfy” or “Half Head.” The top half of his head was removed after he got into a car accident at age fourteen. He first came into the spotlight back in 2010 when he was taken into custody for trying to hire a prostitute. His mugshot was the source of much eye-rubbing.
Sadly, he’s back in the news for another crime. This time it’s a little more serious. Attempted murder. Yikes. Two counts of it, plus one first-degree arson charge for good measure. And while this may conjure images of a half-headed man attacking people with a weapon, that is not what went down. As it turns out, Half Head was just trying to light a mattress on fire.
The logic of mattress-burning:
When police officers rolled up to Half Head’s home, a duplex, he was in the backyard with a mattress. It was about 2:30 in the afternoon. As for why he was trying to start a mattress fire, here’s the scoop from Half Head himself:
“I wanted to burn down my house so I could build a new, two story house, and I don’t care if there was people in the other side of the house because it wasn’t going to reach them.”
This is, according to sources, what he said to the police when they asked him to explain his logic. It wasn’t terribly convincing. He was, after all, trying to burn down a duplex — which means the fire would have most definitely reached the people living in the other side. Most people, wizards excluded, do not have the power to control what fires burn and where they travel. Half Head is ver likely not a wizard, which means it’s doubtful he could have kept the flames on his side of the duplex.
At least he wasn’t actively trying to kill anybody! Still, the police felt obligated to dole out those harsh sounding attempted murder and arson charges because he probably would’ve killed somebody if he’d successfully fired up his mattress. In the words of the arrest report:
“The fire was set within an occupied dwelling, posing an immediate threat to the lives and safety of the occupants.”
Not Half Head’s first rodeo:
Say what you want about this guy, but he knows how to get arrested. He’s been arrested a lot, for crimes all across the board. Public intoxication? Check. Drug possession? Check. Burglary? Check. Battery? Apparently. And then, of course, there’s the prostitute-soliciting that catapulted him to viral fame back in 2010.
His mugshot for the 2010 arrest confused many people. Half a head and half a brain? How? Newspapers were accused of faking the photographs and folks were demanding answers. Lucky for us, Half Head had a Youtube channel, and in one video he smokes a blunt and explains the story behind his namesake:
“I was barred out on drugs and I was driving and I hit a pole and flew out the front window and landed on my head. And this is how the old boy has come out. That’s why it’s no good drinking and driving or drugness and driving. No good, kids.”
So there you have it. Half Head wants us to learn from his mistakes, and in response it seems appropriate to hope that he tries to do the same. This arson/attempted murder arrest might not be his first rodeo, but maybe he can make it his last.
