BERKS COUNTY, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Additional charges have been filed against a 61-year-old man accused of killing a couple and their infant.
The investigation began on Sept. 13 when the body of 33-year-old Junior Cabrera-Colon, of Reading, was found in Baer Park with a gunshot wound to the head. A few days later, on Sept. 18, police questioned Jose Luis Rodriguez, and he admitted to shooting Cabrera-Colon in the back of his head, killing him, and dumping his body in the park.
Rodriguez also admitted to shooting and killing Cabrera-Colon’s wife, 31-year-old Geraldina Peguero-Mancebo, and throwing her one-year-old son, Jeyden, into a muddy pond, leaving him to die.
Berks County District Attorney John Adams says Rodriguez told investigators the baby was alive before he threw him into the water.
"Jeyden was alive at the time he was submerged into the water, and the autopsy revealed that there was mud in his lungs. The cause of death was determined to be freshwater drowning," Adams said.
Adams said they are considering filing a notice to seek the death penalty.
“We have not made any final decision as we speak, but I can't imagine anything more horrifying than throwing that 1-year-old child into that pond of water, and that child is left there to die.”
The woman's and child's bodies were discovered on Sept. 19 and 20, about a week after Cabrera-Colon's body was found in the brush at the park.
Adams says Rodriguez and Peguero-Mancebo were involved in some sort of relationship. He said Rodriguez wanted her to leave her husband, but she refused.
According to our newsgathering partners at NBC10, Rodriguez was charged with first-degree murder, abuse of corpse and other related offenses in Cabrera-Colon’s death. On Monday, he was charged with the murders of Jeyden and Peguero-Mancebo.