ALLENTOWN, Pa. — A Lehigh County jury on Thursday night convicted Hector Martinez of first-degree murder in the 2024 shooting death of Terrence Brunson on a West Liberty Street porch, Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin P. Holihan announced Friday.
Martinez, 27, of Allentown, was also found guilty of carrying a firearm without a license. First-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life without parole, and Lehigh County Judge Robert L. Steinberg is scheduled to sentence Martinez at 1:30 p.m. Nov. 18, the DA’s office said.
The verdict comes 25 months after Brunson was killed. Court records show the trial was postponed twice, witnesses were identified only by number, and the defense gave notice it would present an alibi.
Brunson, 39, was sitting on the front porch of a home in the 500 block of West Liberty Street on Labor Day night, Sept. 2, 2024, when a man wearing a face covering shot him, witnesses told police, according to the DA’s office. He was driven to a hospital and died of a gunshot wound to the chest.
Surveillance cameras showed the shooter in a hooded sweatshirt, baseball cap, and striped pants, the DA’s office said. According to the office, investigators identified the shooter as Martinez, and he fled to his home afterward.
Allentown police arrested Martinez in September 2025, more than a year after the shooting, and he has been held without bail since, court records show.
At his preliminary hearing in November 2025, a district judge ordered that all witnesses be identified only by number, the docket shows. In April, Steinberg amended a protective order to say defense counsel may not be given a witness’s name.
Defense attorney Erv D. McLain filed notice of an alibi defense in August. Steinberg twice denied defense requests to suppress identification evidence, and the week before trial he denied motions Martinez filed on his own.
Prosecutors withdrew three reckless endangerment counts Monday, and Steinberg denied a defense motion for acquittal Thursday.
In April, Steinberg also severed a charge of possessing a firearm while prohibited, so it was not part of the jury trial. Court records available Friday morning had not yet been updated with the verdict and listed no outcome on that charge.
Martinez pleaded guilty in 2017, at 18, to robbery and conspiracy and was sentenced to 18 to 59 months in state prison, court records show. Robbery is among the offenses that bar a person from having a gun under Pennsylvania law.
He also faces two pending drug cases, one from a February 2025 arrest and the other from the night of his homicide arrest, including resisting arrest and evading arrest on foot. A status conference in the second case is set for Nov. 18.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Patricia A. Turzyn prosecuted the case. Allentown police Detectives Justin Williams and Miguel Villa, who has since retired, investigated with the county’s Homicide Task Force.
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