1 Pleads Guilty, 2 Charged In Connection With Framingham Murder

FRAMINGHAM, MA—A Framingham man pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the shooting death of another Framingham man.

Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Framingham Acting Chief of Police Steven Trask announced that Jeremy Rodriguez, 23, pleaded guilty on Wednesday in Middlesex Superior Court to second-degree murder in connection with the 2013 shooting death of Juan Lopez, 21.

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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.

Around 11 p.m. on Nov. 20, 2013, Framingham police responded to a reported shooting at an apartment complex on Second Street in Framingham. A victim had been shot once in the chest through a closed window of his car. He died at the MetroWest Medical Center.

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 got the marijuana from the trunk of his car and then got into the driver’s seat of his vehicle.

While Lopez sat 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 found 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, PA, on Feb. 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.