A Nevada resident has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the fatal shooting of his estranged wife in 2023.
Roidan Mendoza, aged 40, received his life sentence on Wednesday for the murder of Marillorky Tamayo Cruz, as reported by 8 News Now. This tragic event unfolded in Las Vegas following a contentious family court decision.
During the sentencing proceedings, Clark County Deputy District Attorney Corey Hallquist highlighted that Mendoza was motivated by a desire for “vindication” after the court awarded Cruz the family residence and primary custody of their children. Hallquist emphasized, “He’s frustrated by his loss of control and seeks revenge.”
The shooting occurred in August 2023, at the home of Cruz’s mother, located in the Destinations Spring Valley complex in Las Vegas.
The incident happened in August 2023, at the home of the victim’s mother, at the Destinations Spring Valley complex in Las Vegas.
After a family court judge ordered Mendoza to pay child support, Mendoza first went home and cut the gas line to the family’s stove. He then went to his mother-in-law’s apartment and shot into a locked door 11 times.
Once inside the apartment, he found the victim in a bedroom and delivered “an execution-style shot to the forehead,” prosecutors said, per the Las Vegas Review Journal.
In the midst of the attack, Mendoza injured the former boyfriend of Cruz’s sister, and injured Cruz’s mother.
Cruz’s then-14-year-old daughter was also injured in the attack after stabbing Mendoza in the back, in an attempt to protect her younger sister.
“The only thing I could do, that I was thinking, was, I had to protect what I had left,” Cruz’s daughter, now 17, told the court Wednesday. “So I grabbed the knife on the ground, and I was planning to kill him because why would I let a man that killed my mother live?”
“I am not a tall person, nor was I strong. I was a 14-year-old girl trying to defend myself and my family.”
On August 25, Mendoza pleaded guilty to murder with use of a deadly weapon, but contended that the killing had not been “a premeditated homicide.”
“He knows he shouldn’t have lost control,” Chief Deputy Special Public Defender Charles Cano said. “But unfortunately, he did lose control. He didn’t want this to happen, he never wished it did, but being upset and angry and injured, he entered into this red zone of emotions.”
The prosecution played two 911 calls to the court. During one of the calls, Cruz was heard frantic before two gunshots rang out in the background.
While one bullet hit her shoulder, the other bullet fatally struck her in the head.
“The defendant at no point in time during this case has shown any due regard and respect for the sanctity of life,” Hallquist argued.
District Judge Michelle Leavitt sentenced Mendoza to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
[Feature Photo:
Prince Andrew and his former wife, Sarah Ferguson, appear to have reached an agreement to…
More than 311,000 Australian Facebook users can apply for a slice of a $50 million…
In 1991, Demi Moore attended the initial table read for *A Few Good Men* while…
A woman has been taken into custody following a hit-and-run incident in Clearwater, Florida, that…
Ifu Ennada has revealed that she battled memory loss, depression, and severe spiritual attacks over…
MELBOURNE – In a productive meeting on Monday, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese engaged with…