Tyrone Jiggetts Jr. found guilty of murder in Rialto Street shooting

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A man accused of killing two people over the course of two months in January has been convicted of murder in one of the deaths. Tyrone Jiggetts Jr. was found guilty by a Monroe County jury of second-degree murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon for the murder of Juan Pena Mendez.

The jury did not reach a verdict in the case of Luis Morales’ murder. The case will be retried at a later date, according to the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office.

Jiggetts will be sentenced Nov. 8 before state Supreme Court Justice Charles Schiano.

Jiggetts had been charged last year in two separate shooting incidents. The first was in January 2022, in which police said 20 shots were fired and three people were hit — one, 30-year-old Luis Morales, fatally. The second was on Feb. 26, 2022, when police said someone fired at least 16 shots into a parked vehicle on Rialto Street. Rochester police found Mendez, 41, dead in the vehicle in a driveway.

Jiggetts was on parole for a previous conviction of second-degree attempted criminal possession o a weapon at the time.

“The murder of Juan Pena Mendez was committed by Tyrone Jiggetts in broad daylight,” Assistant District Attorney Michael Robertson, who prosecuted the case, said in a statement. “Tyrone Jiggetts ambushed the victim, who was sitting in his car on a Saturday morning. I want to thank the Rochester Police Department for their detailed investigation, resulting in today’s conviction.”