Daniel Villegas was only 16 when fear and pressure led him to confess to a double murder he said he did not commit.
There was never any physical evidence tying him to the killings. Even so, Villegas was convicted and given a life sentence.
Nearly 20 years would pass before an unlikely ally—a stranger with no legal training—helped expose the flaws in the case and secure his freedom. The story is featured on Oxygen’s Dateline: Secrets Uncovered.
Armando Lazo and Bobby England Are Killed in Drive-By Shooting
The tragedy unfolded on April 10, 1993, when Jesse Hernandez and three friends, including Armando “Mando” Lazo and Bobby England, were walking home from a party in El Paso, Texas. Their route took them through an area known for gang activity.
“I was like, ‘We gotta get home,’” Jesse recalled.
He said his “heart started racing” when a maroon car from the 1970s pulled alongside the teenagers. The vehicle stopped, backed up and appeared to follow them in a disturbing game of pursuit before finally driving away.
Jesse thought the danger had passed. About 15 minutes later, however, the same car returned. When Mando and Bobby confronted the driver and began shouting, the driver fired at the group.
Jesse and another teenager ran from the scene. When they returned, they found Mando and Bobby suffering from fatal gunshot wounds.
“I was just like, ‘Am I living a nightmare? It’s just a nightmare. I’m gonna wake up soon,’” Jesse told Dateline correspondent Keith Morrison. “‘I’m gonna wake up right now.’ And the more and more I tried, you know, I didn’t wake up.”
Who is Daniel Villegas?
The shocking and seemingly senseless killings rattled El Paso. Within days, Daniel Villegas—who had a few minor offenses on his record—began telling people in the neighborhood that he was responsible.
But friends and relatives who spoke with Dateline: Secrets Uncovered said the claim did not fit the person they knew. They described Villegas as an immature jokester, not someone capable of murder.
“I think he was trying to be tough because we were in a tough area,” his mother, Yolanda Villegas, said of the gang-heavy neighborhood where he was raised. “He figured if they feared him, he’d have a better chance of survival.”
His boasts soon reached detectives, who brought him in for questioning one night. By the following morning, Villegas had confessed and was under arrest.
Villegas later told Dateline: Secrets Uncovered that he was frightened, had no attorney present and was pressured by Detective Alfonso Marquez to admit guilt.
According to Villegas, Marquez threatened to take him into the desert, handcuff him to a car, beat him and leave him by the highway if he refused to confess. Villegas also alleged that the detective struck him on the back of the head.
Villegas said Marquez then offered him what appeared to be a choice: confess and go to juvenile hall, or refuse and face the possibility that the detective would “make sure you get the electric chair.”
Marquez, who has since died, rejected Villegas’ account during a later court hearing. He maintained that the confession was voluntary and denied beating or threatening the teenager.
Was Daniel Villegas Convicted?
Villegas went on trial for the double homicide in 1994. The first proceeding ended with a hung jury. By the time of his second trial, his family had exhausted its financial resources, leaving him with an overburdened public defender.
His attorney called only one witness. The jury found Villegas guilty, and he was sentenced to life in prison.
Jesse felt a measure of relief, believing the nightmare was “finally over” and that the person responsible for killing his friends had been locked away.
More than a decade later, however, Villegas was deeply depressed and considering taking his own life in prison. Then an unexpected meeting set in motion the effort that would ultimately transform his future.
Who is John Mimbela?
John Mimbela, a successful building contractor, met Daniel’s parents, Yolanda and Chano, through his wife, Lucy. Lucy had known the family for years.
During one visit, John found the couple devastated. The last legal organization they had hoped would review their son’s case had turned them down.
John remembered the family sitting in their home, “crying, I mean, cries of desperation.”
Yolanda and Chano insisted that their son’s confession was false. They also pointed to his alibi: Daniel had reportedly been babysitting at an apartment with friends on the night of the murders.
Their pain stayed with John.
“I felt very, very bad for that family at that moment,” he said. “So I told him, ‘Let me take the information they just returned from you, and let me look at it, and let me see what I can do.’”
Although he had no experience in law, Mimbela began studying the case every night after work, reviewing transcripts, reports and other evidence.
John Mimbela Begins Fight to Free Daniel Villegas
After meeting Villegas in prison, Mimbela became convinced that he was innocent. That belief launched a costly, years-long campaign to have the conviction overturned.
An attorney explained that the family’s best option was a writ of habeas corpus, a legal challenge arguing that Villegas was being unlawfully held. The odds of success were considered extremely low.
While they waited for the court to respond, Mimbela hired a private investigator to reexamine the case. He contacted Jesse, who was initially hesitant to get involved. But after reading the confession, Jesse noticed that key details—including the car’s color and the order of the gunshots—did not correspond with what he remembered.
Jesse also revealed that Marquez had once pressured him to confess, accusing him of killing his own friends during a blackout. He said he nearly gave in, but his mother learned what was happening and complained to police.
“I kept thinking of Daniel. How could they do this to him? And he was like me, he just wanted out. He just wanted to go home,” Jesse said. “And I’m pretty sure he just did sign whatever they wanted.”
From that point forward, Jesse was determined to help. “I’ve got to do something,” he said.
John Mimbela Hires Defense Attorney, Recruits Center on Wrongful Convictions
With Jesse supporting the effort, Mimbela turned to the Northwestern University School of Law Center on Wrongful Convictions, which specializes in false-confession cases. He also enlisted Joe Spencer, a highly respected defense attorney.
While reviewing the file, Spencer found that Villegas had told a juvenile officer shortly after confessing that he was innocent. That statement was never presented to the jury. A later statement in which Villegas supposedly recanted was also absent from the trial record presented to jurors.
Spencer further discovered that investigators had not pursued another possible suspect—someone who had been in the area that night and had previously threatened to kill Mando.
“I really saw an injustice,” Spencer said, pointing out that no physical evidence connected Villegas to the murders. “I really saw a wrong that needed to be righted, and I just want to be so much a part of it.”
As the legal process dragged on, Mimbela worked to keep Villegas from losing hope.
“I told him, ‘Daniel, I’m never gonna stop fighting for you,’” Mimbela recalled. “‘You’re innocent, and I’m not gonna let this happen to you, so don’t give up, ’cause I’m not giving up.’”
He paid for billboards throughout El Paso and organized protests outside the office of prosecutor Jamie Esparza. Over time, the campaign helped shift public sentiment around the case.
Daniel Villegas Granted a New Trial
A breakthrough finally came in 2011, when Judge Sam Medrano granted the habeas corpus petition and ordered an evidentiary hearing to determine whether Villegas deserved a new trial.
“It was amazing because these evidentiary hearings are very rare,” Mimbela said. “So we knew we had to get this hearing if we had a chance of freeing Daniel, and we got it.”
After reviewing the evidence, Medrano recommended in August 2012 that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals grant Villegas a new trial. The judge also stated that he did not find the detective’s testimony credible.
The recommendation marked a major victory, but Villegas still had to wait for the appeals court to decide. In December 2013, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals approved the new trial and overturned his existing conviction.
“That was probably the happiest day of my life,” Mimbela said.
On January 14, 2014, after spending almost 20 years behind bars, Villegas was granted bail and released while awaiting the new proceedings.
Outside the prison, Jesse was waiting. He hugged Villegas and apologized for the role his testimony had played in the wrongful conviction. Mimbela then drove Villegas away in a red convertible he had purchased especially for the occasion.
Where is Daniel Villegas Now?
After his release, Villegas began working for Mimbela’s construction company. He reconnected with his adult daughter, found a romantic partner and welcomed another child while prosecutors considered whether to pursue the case again.
Prosecutors eventually retried him in 2018, this time without relying on the disputed confession. The jury found Villegas not guilty. Esparza, the original prosecutor, later told Morrison that he remained “sure” Villegas had committed the murders.
“They didn’t see the evidence that I presented in 1995,” Esparza said. “And I think had they seen even just the confession…we might have had another decision.”
When the not-guilty verdict was announced, Villegas broke down and fell to his knees.
“When they said not guilty, it was just like that little string that was holding all the nerves just snapped,” he said. “That’s when I went down. It was like everything, all them years just washed away.”
In 2015, Villegas sued the City of El Paso and several police officers. The case was ultimately settled in 2026 for $8 million.
Villegas’ freedom came after years of legal battles and advocacy, much of it led by a man who had initially been a complete stranger.
“It would be probably the best thing I’ve ever done,” Mimbela said. “Every penny, every hour I spent on Daniel’s case was worth it.”
