LEBANON, Pa. — A Lebanon man will serve a sentence of life in prison without parole for his role in a deadly shooting in the city in 2023, the Lebanon County District Attorney's Office said Wednesday.
Juan Delgado Rodriguez, 32, was convicted in November of first-degree homicide in the shooting death of 30-year-old Jean Ortiz Rivera on March 9, 2023.
Lebanon County President Judge John C. Tylwalk sentenced Delgado at a hearing Wednesday morning, according to Lebanon County District Attorney Pier Hess Graf, who prosecuted the case with help from Senior Deputy Amy Muller, Lebanon City Police Detectives and the Lebanon County Detective Bureau.
According to evidence presented at trial, Rodriguez used an illegally possessed 9mm handgun to shoot and kill Ortiz Rivera as he sat on the front porch of his home in the city.
"(Rodriguez) committed this murder in broad daylight; he committed this killing directly in front of the victim's wife -- a key eyewitness in the trial," Hess Graf said in a press release. "The defendant fled the scene, threw away his clothing, and tried to hide the murder weapon."
The victim's wife knew Rodriguez and immediately identified him to police and in a photo lineup, Hess Graf said. She also provided video of the murder from her own surveillance cameras.
One still taken from video of the incident showed that Rodriguez shot Rivera from extremely close range.
Rodriguez was arrested within hours of the incident. Another suspect with ties to Rodriguez was arrested in possession of the murder weapon nearly a month after the shooting, Hess Graf said. After his arrest, the man told authorities he saw Rodriguez stash the weapon and that Rodriguez confessed to the killing.
"The motive for this killing was senseless," Hess Graf said. "The defendant's sister and the victim's wife had an argument. The sister called the defendant. Less than an hour later, in retaliation, the defendant shot the victim twice in his neck and chest."
Rivera's injuries to the neck and chest were so severe that no medical attention could have saved him, Hess Graf said.
"The verdict and sentence cannot bring the victim back -- but they ensure the defendant will never kill again," Hess Graf said. "The victim's family will face Christmas and New Year's, and every day thereafter, without him. We hope this serves as a lesson to would-be criminals -- if you use a weapon, if you extinguish an innocent life, you will die in jail."
