Man Pleads Not Guilty in Slaying

A Granada Hills man who allegedly stabbed and beat his wife, and then ran her over with a van outside a Tarzana post office, pleaded not guilty to murder on Friday.

Daniel Ruben Sada, 53, was arrested Tuesday at his home, hours after authorities found his critically injured wife lying in the street.

Sada, who works for the U.S. Postal Service, is being held on $1-million bail.

Sophie Jennie Rodriguez, 38, was attacked about 5:20 a.m. Tuesday outside the post office in the 18700 block of Philiprimm Street. She died Wednesday at Northridge Hospital Medical Center.

Rodriguez apparently was stabbed multiple times with scissors inside the couple’s van, Deputy Dist. Atty. William J. Ryder said. She then was either pushed or fell out of the van and into the street, where the attack continued.

A witness told police that Sada straddled Rodriguez’s body and hit her in the head a few times with a 2-foot metal pipe, Ryder said.

As Sada left the scene, the van he was driving “made a deliberate swerve and ran over the body,” Ryder said.

Police have no record of domestic violence calls to the couple’s house, Ryder said.

They have one child. If convicted, Sada faces 26 years to life in prison.