USA - Moises Mendoza (TX)

USA - Texas. Moises Mendoza, 41, Hispanic, was executed on April 23

April 23, 2025:

April 23, 2025 - Texas. Moises Mendoza, 41, Hispanic, was executed on April 23

Moises Sandoval Mendoza received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville and was pronounced dead at 6:40 p.m. He was sentenced to death for his conviction in the March 18, 2004 killing of 20-year-old Rachelle O’Neil Tolleson.

After a spiritual adviser prayed over him for about two minutes, Mendoza apologized repeatedly to the victim’s two parents and other relatives present, calling to each by name.

He then spoke briefly in Spanish, addressing his wife, his sister and two friends watching through a window from another witness room.

As the injection began, he could be heard making two loud gasps and then began snoring. After about 10 snores, all movement ceased and he was pronounced dead 19 minutes later.

Authorities said that in the days before the killing, Mendoza had attended a party at Tolleson’s home in Farmersville, near Dallas. On the day her body was found, Mendoza told a friend about the killing. The friend called police, and Mendoza was arrested.

Mendoza confessed to police but couldn’t give detectives a reason for the killing, authorities said. He told investigators he repeatedly choked Tolleson, sexually assaulted her and dragged her body to a field, where he choked her again and then stabbed her in the throat. He later moved her body to a more remote location and burned it, they said.

Mendoza was the third inmate put to death this year in Texas, the 593rd since Texas resumed executions in 1982, the 13th inmate put to death this year in the USA, and the 1,620th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

https://apnews.com/article/texas-execution-moises-mendoza-161074039a8d047786715dd02088a399