Background: A section of Reinholds Road in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (Google Maps). Inset left: Ezekiel Sanderful (East Cocalico Township Police Department). Inset right: Stacy Rodriguez (GoFundMe).
A Pennsylvania man who admitted to trying to kill the mother of his child during a fight over custody listened to her speak in court as his fate was sealed.
Ezekiel Sanderful, 33, was sentenced by Lancaster County Judge Merrill Spahn to 13 1/2 to 40 years in state prison after he pleaded guilty "to shooting a woman multiple times during an argument over custody of their child," the Lancaster County District Attorney's Office announced. The defendant pleaded guilty to attempted murder, aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of children.
"You tried to violently execute me," Stacy Rodriguez — the victim — told Sanderful in court. At times fighting through tears, she described how she was "crying in agony and pleading for my life" during the attack.
On Dec. 9, 2024, at about 8 p.m., Sanderful was at his home on Reinholds Road in East Cocalico Township, Pennsylvania, an area about 60 miles west of Philadelphia. Authorities say he "lured" Rodriguez to his home under the guise of her coming to retrieve their daughter.
When the woman arrived, Sanderful pulled out a gun and fired it multiple times, the DA's office said. Their 3-year-old daughter "was within arm's reach of Sanderful when he fired the shots and witnessed her mother being shot in the face, she later told police."
Rodriguez recounted the horror of falling to the ground and hearing him reload the weapon. She was shot "multiple times in her head, torso and legs, suffering numerous broken bones, permanent loss of vision in one of her eyes and the loss of motor function in one of her arms," according to prosecutors.
Officers with the East Cocalico Township Police Department responded to the scene to find the then-32-year-old woman "lying in the street" with several gunshot wounds. She was treated at the scene before being rushed to a hospital.
Upon officers' arrival, Sanderful "retreated" back into his home. He "eventually surrendered" and was arrested. The child was not physically harmed.
During the defendant's sentencing hearing, prosecutors remarked upon the "miracle" that Rodriguez is still alive today. The judge agreed, telling Sanderful that "but for the grace of emergency medicine and the grace of God," he would be facing life in prison on a charge of first-degree murder.
Still, Rodriguez has faced an uphill battle in recovery. She said she has "been unable to comb her daughter's hair, can no longer see out of her right eye and suffers permanent pain from the 19 bullet wounds she endured." The child has also suffered.
The girl faces "nightmares from what she saw and must now grow up without her father." Still, Rodriguez noted she has "recently received her driver's license and a job promotion and vowed to raise her daughter better" without the man who nearly took her life.
Sanderful, for his part, apologized before his sentencing, the DA's office noted. He said he wants to make amends one day and "to show other men that this isn't the way."
A GoFundMe set up for Rodriguez after the shooting stated that she had four other children, too.
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