A Palmerton woman has admitted to her role in the December 2024 shooting death of her husband outside a Whitehall Township store, authorities announced Monday.

Brenda Rodriguez, 52, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conspiracy to commit aggravated assault as part of a plea with prosecutors, according to a news release from Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin Holihan. Under the deal, all other charges against her will be dropped, Holihan said.

Rodriguez’s husband, Hector Manuel Garcia Gomez, 46, was fatally shot Dec. 7 in the parking lot of Loco Hot Deals at 1155 MacArthur Road. Rodriguez was the third person to be charged in the killing. Christian Martinez-Ramos, 35, and his ex-partner Liz Pacheco, 37, were charged earlier.

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 and Rodriguez arrive in a vehicle in the parking lot. When Garcia Gomez went into the store, Rodriguez stayed in the car and appeared to be on her cellphone, authorities said.

Investigators determined that Rodriguez was using her phone to provide her husband’s location to Pacheco, Holihan said. Pacheco allegedly relayed that information to Martinez-Ramos, who arrived several minutes later in a vehicle.

As Garcia Gomez left the store and started to get in his vehicle, Martinez-Ramos parked behind his vehicle and shot him multiple times, Holihan said. Rodriguez remained in the vehicle with Garcia Gomez for more than 22 seconds, before getting out of the car and going into the store, according to Holihan.

Garcia Gomez died from his injuries at the hospital about an hour after the shooting. While being taken to the hospital, he called the woman he was having an affair with and said “the guy from upstairs shot me,” according to authorities.

Garcia Gomez and Martinez-Ramos also had a prior altercation, and Pacheco told the other woman that “this is going to get worse. He is a dead man,” court documents state.

Martinez-Ramos and Pacheco are both awaiting trial in the case.

Rodriguez in January was charged with soliciting a homicide and aggravated assault, in addition to the conspiracy charge. She now faces up to 20 years in prison, Holihan said. Her sentencing is scheduled for November.

The case was investigated by Whitehall Township police and the Lehigh County Homicide Task Force, and is being prosecuted by Senior Deputy District Attorney James A. Augustine.

https://www.mcall.com/2025/09/22/whitehall-township-fatal-shooting-wife-pleads-guilty/