Additional Coverage:
- Death row inmate’s chilling 10-word plea to murder victim’s family seconds before lethal injection (themirror.com)
HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Moises Sandoval Mendoza, 41, was executed by lethal injection Wednesday evening for the 2004 murder of 20-year-old Rachelle O’Neil Tolleson. Just before the execution, Mendoza offered an apology to Tolleson’s family, addressing her parents, two brothers, a cousin, and an uncle by name. He expressed remorse for taking Tolleson’s life and acknowledged the pain he caused her daughter, who was not present.
Tolleson’s father, however, stated that he would never forgive Mendoza for the brutal murder of his daughter. While acknowledging the pain Mendoza’s family would experience, he emphasized the devastating loss he suffered over two decades ago.
Mendoza’s execution took place at approximately 6:40 p.m. CDT at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas.
He was convicted of abducting Tolleson from her Farmersville home, leaving her six-month-old daughter behind. The infant was discovered unharmed the following day.
Tolleson’s body was found six days later near a creek, burned in an attempt to conceal evidence.
Mendoza’s legal team launched a last-minute appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that he was denied effective counsel during earlier appeals.
The Court rejected the petition, as did lower courts. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles also denied a request to commute Mendoza’s sentence.
The appeal centered on the claim that both Mendoza’s trial lawyer and his appellate attorney failed to challenge key testimony used by the prosecution to establish future dangerousness, a requirement for the death penalty under Texas law. The attorney general’s office countered that even if the contested testimony had been excluded, substantial evidence of Mendoza’s violent history, including attacks against his mother and sister and the sexual assault of a minor, supported the jury’s finding.
Texas authorities reported that Mendoza had attended a party at Tolleson’s home days before the murder. He later confessed to the crime, detailing the brutal assault and subsequent attempts to conceal the body.
Mendoza’s execution marks the third in Texas and the 13th in the United States this year.