A woman who pleaded guilty for her role in the killing of her husband in Whitehall Township will serve 2-½ to 10 years in state prison, Lehigh County Judge Robert Steinberg ruled Wednesday.
Brenda Rodriguez, 52, of Palmerton, is the last of three defendants to be sentenced in the Dec. 7, 2024, shooting of Hector Garcia Gomez in the parking lot of Loco Hot Deals on MacArthur Road. She pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy to commit aggravated assault.
Last month, Christian Martinez-Ramos, 36, of Allentown, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and conspiracy to commit third degree murder and was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in state prison.
Liz Marie Pacheco pleaded guilty last month to third-degree murder and was sentenced to 5 to 10 years in state prison.
Initially, Rodriguez said she did not know who shot her husband or would want to kill him. However, she later told authorities that she knew he was having an affair with a woman who lived in Allentown. She said she learned about the affair from Pacheco, who lived with Martinez-Ramos next door to the other woman, according to court documents.
Video surveillance from the shooting showed Garcia Gomez, 46, and Rodriguez arrived in a vehicle in the parking lot outside the store at 1155 MacArthur Road.
When Garcia Gomez went into the store, Rodriguez stayed in the car and called Pacheco, giving her their location, according to authorities.
Pacheco relayed that information to Martinez-Ramos, who drove to the parking lot, arriving several minutes later. As Garcia Gomez left the store and started to get in his vehicle, Martinez-Ramos parked behind his vehicle and shot him multiple times, authorities said.
As an ambulance took Garcia Gomez to a hospital, he called a woman he was having an affair with and said “the guy from upstairs shot me,” according to authorities. Garcia Gomez and Martinez-Ramos had an altercation before the shooting, authorities said.
Garcia Gomez died at the hospital.
The case was investigated by Whitehall Township Police Detective Lindsay Yetter, Lehigh County Homicide Task Force Detectives Timothy Salgado, James Bruchak and Amaury Almonte and was prosecuted by Senior Deputy District Attorney James A. Augustine.