Framingham Man Pleads Guilty in Connection with 2013 Homicide

FRAMINGHAM – Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Framingham Acting Chief of Police Steven Trask have announced that Jeremy Rodriguez, 23, of Framingham, pleaded guilty yesterday in Middlesex Superior Court to second-degree murder in connection with the 2013 shooting death of Juan Lopez, 21, of Framingham. Rodriguez also pleaded guilty to attempting to commit a crime, conspiracy, possession of a firearm without a license, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and possession of a loaded firearm.

Judge Laurence Pierce sentenced the defendant to life with the possibility of parole after 15 years.

On November 20, 2013, at approximately 11:00 p.m., Framingham Police responded to a report of a shooting at an apartment complex on Second Street in Framingham. Upon arrival, authorities located the victim, who had been shot once in the chest through a closed window of his motor vehicle. The victim was transported to MetroWest Medical Center where he later died.

Framingham Police and Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office immediately began an investigation. It is alleged that Rodriguez’s co-defendants, Jose Cruz, 21, of Framingham, and Bryan Pertarb, 25, of Hudson, arranged to meet with the victim at the Second Street complex to buy approximately a half pound of marijuana. When Lopez arrived at the location on Second Street he retrieved marijuana from the trunk of his car and then got into the driver’s seat of his vehicle.

While the victim was seated in the driver’s seat of his motor vehicle, the defendant, wearing a Halloween mask, approached the driver’s side window and fired one shot into the car striking the victim in the chest. The three defendants then fled.

Authorities subsequently located a black knit ski mask with a white skeleton design on it at the intersection of Homeward Lane and Garden Road in Natick, a short distance from the location of the shooting.

Rodriguez was apprehended in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on February 4, 2014. 

Cruz is charged with murder, attempting to commit a crime and conspiracy. Pertarb is charged with murder, attempting to commit a crime, conspiracy, possession of a firearm without a license, possession of ammunition, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and possession of a loaded firearm. These charges are allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

The prosecutors assigned to the case are Assistant District Attorneys Christopher Tarrant and Courtney Linnehan. The Victim Witness Advocate is Lesia Schymonowytsch.