Philly Man Sentenced To Life In Prison For Middletown Murder

A 34-year-old Philadelphia man will spend the rest of his days behind bars for killing a man in Middletown Township.

Kahlill Saleem Brown was sentenced Wednesday by Bucks County Court of Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Finley to life in prison without parole for first-degree murder, and a concurrent sentence of 19 ½ to 39 years for conspiracy, reckless endangerment, and firearms violations, according to the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office.

In July, Brown was found guilty during a trial of first-degree murder, criminal conspiracy to commit murder, firearms not to be carried without a license, possession of an instrument of crime, false swearing, and two counts of recklessly endangering another person. In addition, the judge found Brown guilty of persons not to possess a firearm.

Brown and his mother, Joyce Brown-Rodriguez, 56, of Philadelphia, were charged with the December 10, 2020 killing of Christopher M. Wilson, 52, of Philadelphia, following a grand jury investigation. Wilson was shot dead outside a now-closed recycling center on Wheeler Way where he worked in Middletown Township.

Brown-Rodriguez pleaded guilty last December to third-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder of the third degree, possession of a firearm, false swearing, and related offenses. She was sentenced in summer to 20 to 40 years behind bars.

Wilson had an affair with Brown-Rodriguez but it had ended not long before he was killed. Wilson claimed Brown-Rodriguez was upset at him and stalking him.

The star witness for the prosecution was Brown-Rodriguez, who pinned the blame for the killing on her son.

Brown-Rodriguez, who had been raising her son’s daughter, testified in court on Tuesday that she was waiting in a car outside the Wheeler Way business where Wilson worked and heard a pop, which she believed was a gunshot.

“I said to [my son]: ‘what the f**k did you just do? I thought you were going to talk to him,’” Brown-Rodriguez said.

“He said: ‘I didn’t feel like talking,’” she testified.

Brown-Rodriguez said in court that she moved the car to pick up her son after the shooting and the two fled back to Philadelphia. She said she was so shaken she missed the turn to I-95 and had to take Route 1 back home.

During the trial, Richard J. Fuschino Jr., Brown’s defense attorney, pressed Brown-Rodriguez on lies she previously told detectives and the grand jury. He noted her story changed once she was thinking about her sentencing.

Deputy District Attorney A.J. Garabedian presented cell phone records, including data that showed Brown’s phone in the area of the shooting around the time it happened.

Brown-Rodriguez testified that Wilson was a “good man” and had comforted her when her mother died. She grew close with him amid trouble with her husband. Their affair had ended by the time the murder happened.

At sentencing on Wednesday, three of Wilson’s nine children testified about the impact the murder has had on their family.

“I believe he is getting exactly what he deserves,” one daughter said.

“Keep him in jail, keep us safe and let us heal,” another daughter told the court.

The judge said he could tell the family was in deep pain over Wilson’s death, calling the killing a “brutal, heartless act.”

“It’s incomprehensible to me to care so little for another human being,” the judge said.

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