A Reading man waived a preliminary hearing Monday on charges he killed a Reading man, the man’s wife and her 1-year-old son in September.
Jose L. Rodriguez, 61, of Centre Park is charged with first-degree murder and abuse of corpse in the killings of Geraldina Peguero-Mancebo, 31, and her 1-year-old son, Jeyden Peguero. Those charges were filed four days after Reading police charged Rodriguez with first degree-murder in the Sept. 13 killing of Junior Cabrera-Colon, whose body was found near a northwest Reading park.
Rodriguez remains in the Berks County Jail without bail pending further court action.
According to investigators:
Cabrera-Colon’s body was discovered Sept. 13 in brush along River Road near Baer Park, hours after his wife was last seen leaving Lincoln Tower Apartments with the toddler. Detectives learned Rodriguez had worked with Peguero-Mancebo at a warehouse and had helped her secure her apartment.
Rodriguez eventually admitted shooting Cabrera-Colon in the head behind Rodriguez’s home in the 1500 block of Centre Avenue the morning of Sept. 13. He told police that the victim’s gun fell during an altercation and that he fired a single shot.
Rodriguez then placed Cabrera-Colon’s body in the victim’s car and dumped it near the park.
Video footage and cellphone data later showed Peguero-Mancebo carrying Jeyden into Rodriguez’s car the night of Sept. 12 on North Fifth Street outside of her building. Data tracked the car to an area near the Temple Walmart and then to desolate East Huller Lane in Ontelaunee Township, where police later found her body.
She also had been shot in the back of the head.
The next day, Jeyden’s body was recovered about 150 yards away, partially submerged in algae-covered water beside a pond.
Rodriguez eventually admitted shooting Peguero-Mancebo in the back of the head because she didn’t want to leave her husband and throwing Jeyden facedown into stagnant water near a pond.
Officials said an autopsy showed the boy drowned.
During a Sept. 29 press conference to announce the charges against Rodriguez in the killings of Peguero-Mancebo and her son, District Attorney John T. Adams called the case horrific.
“I can’t imagine anything more horrifying than throwing that 1-year-old child into that pond of water and leaving him there to die,” Adams said at the time. “This was cruel. It was horrible. It was a different level. In reflection, it just makes me want to cry.”