The husband of 36-year-old Carmen Rodriguez could not bear to have one of his wife’s accused killers look at him as the former approached the trial table for an impact statement during Terrance Peterson’s sentencing on Oct. 15.
“Don’t look at me, don’t look at me,” the victim’s husband sternly said to the 34-year-old defendant before addressing Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Jennifer B. Schiffer.
Peterson was convicted of driving his co-defendant, Martin Brooks, to Kim Grocery & Deli before and after the shooting. Brooks—the trigger man, according to the prosecution and defense—was later sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder and additional weapons charges in July 2023.
The nearly six-year-old case came to a close on Wednesday when Peterson was sentenced to life, suspending all but 30 years, for first-degree murder and a concurrent 20 years, the first five years without parole, and five years of supervised probation for firearm use in a felony or violent crime. Peterson was initially scheduled for a jury trial last month, but agreed to plead guilty for his role in the fatal armed robbery on Dec. 22, 2019.
During Wednesday’s sentencing, Rodriguez’s husband recalled his wife being shot in the head in front of the couple’s four children at the store on the 100 block of North Kenwood Avenue. The victim’s now 11-year-old son saw his mother get shot, her husband said, with their few-months-old baby in a carrier nearby.
“This is not a he said, she said,” the victim’s husband told Judge Schiffer. “Everything is there.”
Rodriguez’s mother and sister also spoke, both of whom said their loved one’s death was “very sad.”
“We can’t even console each other,” the victim’s sister said. “We’re all torn apart by this.”
A Baltimore City prosecutor, who stood in for the trial attorney at sentencing, said Peterson was sent into the deli to “case the store” before Brooks—the gunman—committed the armed robbery and shot Rodriguez. Although he didn’t pull the trigger, the prosecutor said, the defendant remains “every bit of culpable.”
Defense attorney Deborah Levi repeatedly referred to Brooks’ heinous actions, explaining that her client saw Baltimore Police’s Instagram post regarding the incident and turned himself in. Levi said Peterson was unaware of Brooks’ intentions that day, only having communicated with him briefly through some text messages.
The attorney also noted that Peterson had no motive to kill Rodriguez, while Brooks’ motive was to get the money he needed to bail his girlfriend out of jail.
By turning himself in, “[Peterson] did his part to bring some closure,” Levi said, as opposed to taking the case through another trial.
Judge Schiffer added that if someone wrote this criminal act, “they couldn’t have made it worse.”
The judge also told defense counsel to file a motion to modify Peterson’s sentence, which she will hold under consideration until the defendant shows progress.
