A West Philly woman was sentenced to decades in prison for conspiring with her son to kill her ex

A West Philadelphia woman who enlisted her son to kill her ex-boyfriend was sentenced Monday to 20-to-40 years in state prison.

Joyce Brown Rodriguez, 56, had pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and conspiracy in the death of Christopher Wilson, 52, whom she dated for two years.

As part of that agreement, Brown Rodriguez testified against her son, Khalill Brown, 34, at his trial in July. Brown fatally shot Wilson in the parking lot of Kuusakoski Recycling in Langhorne in December 2020. He was convicted of first-degree murder and will be sentenced to life in prison in September.

In handing down the sentence Monday, Bucks County Court Judge Jeffrey Finley said he, like Wilson’s family, wanted to know why Brown Rodriguez turned to violence rather than accept the relationship’s end.

“It makes no sense that anything that occurred here, in any way, should have led to you taking the life of Mr. Wilson,” Finley said. “Your actions not only took his life, but had a significant impact on the people who were there that day.”

Investigators responding to the Kuusakoski plant found Wilson in the parking lot, unresponsive, according to the affidavit of probable cause for Brown Rodriguez’s arrest. He had been shot several times and was pronounced dead at the scene.

From the outset of the investigation, prosecutors believed Wilson, a father of nine, had been targeted by someone he knew. Wilson’s coworkers who witnessed the shooting told detectives that Brown Rodriguez had confronted him days earlier, starting an argument in the same parking lot, the affidavit said. Wilson had made it clear, his coworkers told police, that he wanted to get away from her.

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In the days leading up to the shooting, Brown Rodriguez had called a friend of her son’s, asking for help in getting a gun, according to the affidavit. She later called her son, saying she needed his help.

While testifying before a grand jury, Brown Rodriguez said she drove her son to Wilson’s workplace, but said she did so only in the hope that he would talk to Wilson on her behalf, the affidavit said. But the jurors did not find her testimony credible.

On Monday, Brown Rodriguez’s attorney, Craig Penglase, said she has suffered greatly since the shooting, and had attempted suicide. He asked the judge for leniency and noted her cooperation in providing evidence against her son.

“The most powerful thing a person can do in a case like this is try to make things right,” Penglase said. “And that’s what my client has done.”

But five of Wilson’s children, assembled in Finley’s courtroom on Monday, took turns explaining that there was nothing Brown Rodriguez — or anyone — could do to make things right for their family.

Chynea Wilson said she was outraged to learn Brown Rodriguez was responsible for her father’s death, especially after she comforted the family in the immediate hours after the shooting.

“You had the audacity to walk up and hug me when you had your son murder my father,” Wilson said. “You were shameless, like a demonic person, acting like nothing had happened. For that, you deserve everything coming to you.”

Wilson and her siblings described their father as a loving, hardworking parent who was often the first to check in with them every morning. They lamented that he will miss so many future milestones in their lives: weddings, graduations, and births.

“Why couldn’t she just leave him alone?” Britney Wilson asked through tears. “Why couldn’t she just walk away?”