Murder With My Husband - 211. The Garner City Double Murder - Samuel and Maria Mendoza

Episode Date: April 8, 2024

In this episode, Payton and Garrett dive into the case of Samuel and Maria Mendoza, a couple who was randomly targeted in a gang related shooting. Live Show Tickets: https://www.murderwithmyhusband.com/live-shows All shows are 18+ even if it says 21+, its 18! Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/themwmh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murderwithmyhusband/ Discount Codes: https://mailchi.mp/c6f48670aeac/oh-no-media-discount-codes Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@murderwithmyhusband Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/murder-with-my-husband/id1508098400 Listen on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6GaodpBsSpBuUMhmEXhjK2 Case Sources: Law & Crime Network - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkHX0NZzQRI&t=1147s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4KnIecZr0E  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSAIR_qynQQ ABC 11 Eyewitness News - https://abc11.com/jonathan-santillan-murder/5940654/ https://abc11.com/jonathan-santillan-murder-trial-raleigh-garner/960740/  https://abc11.com/garner-mendoza-santillan-murder/950896/  https://abc11.com/israel-vasquez-garner-double-muder-not-guilty/1527556/  The News & Observer - https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article210205029.html https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/crime/article104299571.html  https://www.newsobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article273139625.html  https://www.newspapers.com/image/646039838/?terms=%22Samuel%20Mendoza%22&match=1  https://www.newspapers.com/image/646122460/?terms=%22Maria%20Mendoza%22&match=1  https://www.newspapers.com/image/653387991/?terms=%22Maria%20Mendoza%22&match=1  https://www.newspapers.com/image/652651239/?terms=%22Maria%20Mendoza%22&match=1  https://www.newspapers.com/image/652651690/?terms=%22Jonathan%20Santillan%22&match=1  https://www.newspapers.com/image/646090903/?terms=%22Isrrael%20Vasquez%22&match=1  WRAL News - https://www.wral.com/story/appeals-court-sends-back-case-of-youth-convicted-in-2-deaths/17523306/  https://www.wral.com/story/santillan-gets-life-without-parole-for-mendoza-murders/14868701/  https://www.wral.com/story/jury-selection-begins-for-second-teen-charged-in-garner-double-murder/16051154/  Find Law - https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/nc-court-of-appeals/1894947.html  CBS 17 - https://www.cbs17.com/news/local-news/wake-county-news/appeals-court-sends-back-case-of-teen-convicted-garner-killings/   The City of Garner, North Carolina - https://www.garnernc.gov/about-us/overview-of-town-history  Court Chatter Live - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie2P7kX8khw&t=3s Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to an Ono Media podcast. All right, Peyton and I are popping in here real quick because we have a surprise announcement. We opened up two more shows at the Nashville and Phoenix venues. They are the same exact night as our other shows we have, but they are right after that. We got a lot of messages from people saying that they missed their chance to get tickets and they were wondering if we were gonna do another show.

And so because it sold out so fast, we are adding these second shows. It actually will be a different case. So two different episodes for both Nashville and Arizona. But I really, really am excited about this. I can't even believe that this is real, that this is happening. But there you go, two more shows added to our spring tour.

Check out the tickets in the description. There'll be links everywhere. We love you all. Hey everybody, welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Payton Morland. And I'm Garrett Morland. And he's the husband.

I'm the husband. Before we get into my 10 seconds, for those who don't know, Payton has her own solo show called Into the Dark. Amazing true crime, some hauntings every once in a while, some conspiracy theories every once in a while, and also some updates on recent and trending cases.

Go and check it out, the links will be below. Again, it is called Into the Dark. All right, Gare, what's your 10 seconds? So I know not everyone's an animal lover, not everybody is a dog lover. Red flag. And I understand it. Some people don't like dogs and other animals.

That's OK. Everyone can have their own opinion. Red flag. But I will say something that I've been on TikTok. Somehow I got on it, and I'm trying to get off of it. But I'm on, like, I don't know what else to call it, sad dog TikTok, where there are dogs that need to be adopted, or dogs that are left in the middle of nowhere,

and someone goes and rescues them. I just don't understand how you can do that to a dog. You know what I'm saying? Just, I don't want this anymore. It makes me feel like if you can do that to a dog, you can do it to a dog. You know what I'm saying? Just, I don't want this anymore. And it makes me feel like if you can do that to a dog, you can do it to a kid. I don't know what type of- Is that a hot take? Is that a hot take?

You're gonna get shredded, but I agree. I agree. Okay, here we go. I think for some of my 10 seconds every once in a while, I might do a hot take. This is my hot take. All right? If you can get rid of a dog in the middle of nowhere and just drop a dog off, I think that you would probably do that to a kid. And you probably need your license suspended. Okay, Payne will take it a little far. She would, this subject for her is very sensitive, but that's my hot take.

Yeah, that's kind of what I got for my 10 seconds this week. Nothing crazy, I was just thinking about it because on TikTok it's all I've been seeing. I need to get off of it. On a happier note, I bought some new shirts that I like. That's about it. All right, let's get into today's episode and I hope everyone enjoys. I think you should call it a hottie's hot takes. Okay.

So hottie's hot takes. Am I the hottie? Yeah, you're the hottie. All right, Garrett Morland's hotties. I can't even say that, hot takes. All right, our sources for this episode are Long Crime Network, ABC 11, Eyewitness News, The News and Observer, WRAL News, Fine Law, CBS 17, The City of Garner, North Carolina, and Court Chatter Live. The City of Garner, North Carolina and Court Chatter Life. This episode includes discussions of murder and self harm. So please listen with care.

Now, when it comes to true crime, it's always tempting to come up with some kind of cause and effect narrative. Like this person did X and that's what got them killed. This isn't always a great attitude to have. It's really easy to slip into victim blaming or make it seem like a murder was the direct result of someone's poor decision-making. Needless to say, it's not good. The only person to blame for a homicide is the person who committed it.

But also, we get it. The world can be a scary place and it's nice to think that maybe if you just do everything the right way way you'll be safe. But that is not the case. It is not the world we live in and we will see that in today's episode. It all began with a married couple named Jose Samuel Flores Mendoza and Maria Saravia Mendoza. From what I can tell he he went by Samuel, so that's how I'll refer to him in this episode. So the husband and wife were both 34 years old and we are in the year 2013.

And they had two children, Jorge, who was 12, and Jacob, who was three years old. The couple was originally from El Salvador, but they'd immigrated to the United States about 15 years ago to escape violence in their home country and now they lived together in a rented duplex in Garner, North Carolina That's actually a small community just outside of Raleigh Garner has been around since 1847 when it was a railroad stop the Mendozas had just settled into their new home

sometime around late 2011 or early 2012, and about a year went by without incident. Maria's family actually lived nearby, and so they helped out with childcare. They all attended the same church together, and Maria and Samuel both worked in the kitchen at the Golden Corral restaurant.

Golden Corral classic. Yeah, it was a gig that they'd had for years. It was a good setup because their manager was careful to never schedule them for the same shift so one of them could always be home with the kids and they were still making good money. They were just this happy family who didn't have any major cares in the world. But on the night of January 5th, 2013, Jorge, the 12 year old, went to his uncle's house for a sleepover. And this hadn't been planned in advance. That evening, the uncle got a

sudden impulse to pick up Jorge. He thought it was because he and Jorge had plans at their church the next day. But that moment of intuition may have actually saved Jorge's life. So the uncle swung by the duplex, picked up his nephew and said hi to the rest of the family, except for Samuel who was working a late night shift that night. So while Maria and three-year-old Jacob were home together, Samuel shut down the restaurant. And afterward, he kindly offered a ride home to his coworkers. He got back to the duplex a little after midnight. Samuel came inside, then locked and deadbolted

the door behind him. He needed to eat and then unwind before he went to bed. So he sat on a couch in the living room watching TV while he had dinner. He actually had a blanket over his shoulders. He was just being very cozy. His wife Maria was in the kitchen at this time putting the last few finishing touches on the rest of his dinner when suddenly their front door swung open.

A pair of home invaders had literally kicked it down. Samuel couldn't make out their faces. They were wearing masks, gloves, and hair nets, presumably to prevent them from leaving DNA behind. And if you wanted to ask who they were and why they were there, he never got the chance. The two strangers opened fire with a.45 caliber handgun and an AK-47.

They come into the house and they just begin firing wildly, a 45 caliber handgun and an AK-47. Oh geez. They come into the house and they just begin firing wildly, showering the room in bullets. The two invaders didn't have to aim at Samwell specifically. They still struck him 16 times he was shot. Holy crap. And he didn't survive the attack. Okay.

Now once Samwell was dead, the two intruders marched through the duplex, checking to see if anyone else was there. And each time they walked into a new room, they just did the same thing. They would just unleash a stream of bullets, striking furniture, walls, the floors, everything. Some of their shots even went through the walls into the other duplex unit. The Mendoza's neighbors actually heard everything and they took cover diving under furniture. I mean, you can imagine how scary that would be.

Yeah. Thankfully they didn't hit anyone in the other household, but the Mendoza family wasn't so lucky. When the gunman got to the kitchen, Maria was in the doorway with her back to them facing the stove. It's unclear how she hadn't noticed the earlier gunfire or if she was just trying to run or hide away. Either way, we know she was facing away from them

when she got struck. They shot her fatally seven times. They then turned their attention to the only other person who was home. Three-year-old Jacob. Oh, get no way. He's obviously too young to understand what was going on. He watched the two murderers as they pointed their guns at him

and they pulled the trigger. No, there's a special place in hell for people like that. Well, luckily when they go to pull the trigger, they're either out of bullets or one of the guns had jammed. Later on, the police weren't sure exactly what happened, but the important detail is the gun didn't go off. They did attempt to shoot, but it didn't go off. Again, it was like fate had intervened

to save the Mendoza kids. Between the uncles, sudden impulse to have Jorge come over for the night, and this misfire now, it was uncanny, but the killers left three-year-old Jacob home alive alone with his parents dead. So meanwhile, the neighbor who lived in the next unit over ran out of his duplex. He got outside just to see one of the shooters fleeing. I mean, this isn't a quiet crime.

So he sees one of the shooters fleeing and the killer climbed into a vehicle and drove off. It was too dark to make out any of his features. The neighbor didn't even see what color the vehicle was or if it was even a car or a truck. But he knew now that the shooters were gone. So he went into the Mendoza's unit to see if they were okay. And he could tell at a glance that they weren't. Samuel was dead in the living room,

and three-year-old Jacob had left his room and was now hugging his dead dad. Oh my gosh, that is heartbreaking. He was desperate for his father to wake up. Maria was still lying on the floor of the kitchen. She was also dead. So the neighbor took Jacob away from the scene, wrapped him in a soft blanket.

But by now, someone had called 911. Lots of people on the street had overheard, lots of people on the street had overheard the gunfire. The police responded to the scene right away. They were there by 1230 AM. Just as the neighbor was walking Jacob out of the house, police had arrived. Once they realized that Maria and Samuel

had both been killed and Jacob was an orphan, they arranged to call Maria's sister, Julia. By now, they'd done some preliminary investigation. It was about four in the morning and they didn't want to relay the bad news over the phone. So instead, the officials just told her there'd been some kind of accident. She had to get to the hospital for Jacob's sake. Julia's first thought when she gets this call from police is that this is just strange if Jacob was

hurt or sick. Maria, her sister, would have called her. Later on, she was called to testify about that night and she explained her confusion using an interpreter. And I said, it should be, it must be a mistake. It must be some other child named Jacob. Why don't we go check at the apartment? So she rushed over to Samuel and Maria's place and she was shocked to find it was surrounded by police officers. They had yellow caution tape stretched all around the property. It prevented her and everyone else from coming inside. That's when she learned the horrible news. Her sister and her

brother-in-law had been murdered. The officers reassured her that the children, her nephews, were fine. Jacob was at the hospital waiting for someone to take him home, which was where she was originally supposed to go, but she rushed over to the house and Jorge was still with his uncle who'd been notified about the murders. The detectives gave Julia a ride to the clinic so she could pick Jacob up, but they also made her wait a while before she could see him. The police didn't want to upset Jacob or at least not make him more upset than he already was.

So Julia had to pull herself together first before she could see him. Once she could act fairly normal without bursting into tears, she went to see her nephew. Right away, he said he thought his older brother Jorge had murdered his parents. So three-year-old initially tells her Jorge didn't. So I'm not sure how exactly, but the police obviously eliminate Jorge as a suspect pretty quickly. Also, I had three years old. Are you that coherent? I don't know.

I just think it was more like at three he's trying to put the pieces together and the only other person in the family was his brother. So maybe he thought his brother had done it. I mean, he's three. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. They don't understand. At three that's what I'm saying, at three, that would be very hard

to hold up in court to anything, to even understand what's going on. And police take it with a grain of salt. They're like, okay, we can check in a 12-year-old Jorge, but he was with the uncle. The uncle provides the alibi. So their best guess was that Jacob was just confused. Maybe the real killer looked like Jorge.

Maybe it was a preteen or a teenage Latino boy. Beyond that, there weren't any clear leads. Samuel and Maria were well-liked. They didn't have any enemies. Their family members couldn't imagine that anyone would ever want to hurt them. Also, the fact that they went in and shot so much, that doesn't even make sense.

Feels like a hit. Yeah, but yeah but it just seems weird they were spraying bullets everywhere too. Just go in and, I don't know, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. You would think they would go in, shoot the person, leave. Right.

Not cause the commotion they did. Well, and even stranger, the police actually matched the bullets from their murders to another shooting earlier that year. So when they run the ballistics, they're like, wait a second, that time, that shooting earlier that year. So when they run the ballistics, they're like, wait a second. That time, that shooting earlier that year, a known gang member was shot by rivals from another group. But Samuel and Maria weren't involved with gangs. There was no clear connection between the two crimes other than the bullets. So once their murders made the news, a person of interest

came forward. Someone who, to all appearances, had nothing to do with Maria Samuel. He was a member of a gang, a man named David Gonzalez, but on the streets he was known as Sancho. And he belonged to a gang known as the Very Dangerous Mexicans or the VDM for short. Sancho told the police he... The unique name? Yes. Don't come after me. I mean it's just like okay to the point.

Yeah yeah yeah. To the point. It is a little scary I'm not gonna lie. So Sancho told the police he recognized the duplex that the Mendozas had been killed in as he should have. He used to live in it. the duplex that the Mendozas had been killed in, as he should have. He used to live in it. Sancho had moved out just a year earlier.

Apparently his neighbors didn't get along with him and they complained to the landlord until he was pushed out of the duplex. And afterward, the new renters were Maria and Samuel. Sancho explained that for years now, he'd been caught in the middle of a gang war. So he tells police like yeah I'm involved with these people. A rival group called the super very dangerous Mexicans. A rival group called

Sur 13 had already made multiple attempts on his life. At one point they even broke into his unit that that duplex, to threaten him. He assumed that his Sir 13 enemies had sent someone to kill him and they made the mistake of going to his old address. Meaning of course Samuel and Maria didn't have any enemies. The murders didn't care about the couple at all. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. That, I mean, that makes sense. So this is what initially police gather.

They're like, okay, these bullets are connected to gangs. And then they realized that a member of one of these gangs used to live in this duplex. They bring him in and he's like, yeah, those people were probably trying to kill me. And they just went in and shot everyone in that house. And I'd moved out of there. It's funny, wouldn't you, maybe they wouldn't.

Wouldn't you think they would double check and be like, okay, let's- Maybe not. Make sure the person we want to kill is here? I mean, I don't, okay, I'm not gonna say like, I know really how gangs work, but those people could have not even really known who they were going to kill.

They could have just been told to go kill. Yeah, that's true. You know what I mean? So Sancho even provided the name of the person who'd made that previous attempt on his life. It was a Sir 13 gang member who he called Trigger. When the detectives talked to Trigger's girlfriend, she was all too happy to cooperate. She gave the investigators an entire list of names.

Is it ex-girlfriend? No, girlfriend. It was all people who were part of the gang Sir 13, all of whom had collaborated with Trigger, all of whom probably wanted Sancho dead. From there, it was just a matter of working their way down the list. Pretty early on, the investigators focused on a teenager named Israel Vasquez.

When they searched Israel's home, they found two guns and a bunch of ammunition. The firearms were a.45 caliber handgun and an AK-47. Surprise, surprise. The exact same kind of weapons that had killed Maria and Samwell. It looked like someone had tried to scratch off the gun's serial numbers, make them harder to identify. And as it turned out, these guns were

stolen. But ballistics tests still proved these were the murder weapons. And the guns and bullets weren't all the police found in Israel's house. When they headed toward the attic, they found two men hiding in his home. Like they were hoping to avoid the detectives entirely. And one of them was Israel himself. He wasn't actually in the attic yet when police charged this home. Detectives found him standing on a chair in his closet which had a door to the attic in it.

Like he was midway up. Like he was midway trying to get into the attic to hide when they caught him. He told the police he was only trying to hide because he had some marijuana stashed up there, but they didn't buy it. The other man who actually made it into the attic was his 15 year old nephew, Jonathan Santian. 15, man, that is so young. It's getting wrapped up with the wrong people. So both of the men or I mean 15 year old boy, was arrested and charged with the murders.

Now, Jonathan was only 15 and he'd had a rough life up until this point. For a big chunk of his early childhood, Jonathan's father was in prison and he and his mom would go visit him regularly. But in spite of that, Jonathan was actually a good kid. He attended church, he rarely got into trouble. Although he and his mother did live in a trailer surrounded by poverty

and drug dealers every day. Jonathan avoided the bad influences around him. When Jonathan was eight, his father was released and he was so excited. His dad made all kinds of plans with him. They even attended some boy scout events together. It seemed like everything was turning around, the family was healing, but it didn't take long for their relationship to take a dark turn.

They only got to spend about a year together before Jonathan's father went missing without a word. Nobody knew what happened to him, but Jonathan's family had a theory. They believe he was murdered. The culprits may have been involved with a drug cartel. So afterward, Jonathan kind of sank into a deep depression. Again, this is a pretty young age still.

He began sleeping with a knife under his pillow. Presumably he told people he needed to defend himself if whoever had murdered his dad came after him. Over time, his dark feelings grew worse. He tried to kill himself multiple times. And the first attempt was when he was only 10, 10 years old. He spent some time in a mental health hospital

and missed four weeks of third grade. That's so young, so sad. But it didn't seem to help very much. He was still deeply troubled when he got out and he continued his attempts. And to make matters worse, from that point onward, it was like Jonathan couldn't get away from the gang activity. I'm not really sure why these guys were interested in him. I mean, Jonathan was still an elementary student. He was just a little boy. But for whatever reason, members were recruiting

him pretty aggressively and violently attacking him when he tried to keep his distance. When he was 13 years old or so, he moved to Houston, Texas. That's where his dad's side of the family lived. The hope was that a change of scenery might help him turn his life around. Instead, gang members there kept bothering him even in his new home city. He'd be minding his business, shopping or hanging with his friends, and older boys would start harassing him or try to pick fights. One time, a bunch of guys jumped him at a grocery store and beat him up. A few days later, one of them showed up at his house hoping to continue the brawl.

So Jonathan ends up moving back to Gardiner, North Carolina, to be close to his mom, but again, it doesn't help. I feel like it would be so hard if you're wrapped up in a gang and you're trying to get out of it or escape it, you'd have to like move across the country. Well, and even then it's like, it followed him, you know? You'd have to go like Alaska or something. I don't know, that's tough. And by the summer of 2012, someone shot Jonathan.

Okay. But he survived, but it felt like it didn't matter what he did. Gang violence followed him around. It probably didn't help that his mother's brother was Israel Vasquez and his uncle Israel was also a member of Sir 13. I also want to note, even though Israel and Jonathan were uncle and nephew, they were very close in age. So Israel felt more like a peer or a friend than an authority figure to him. And they also lived right across the street from one another.

They hung out after school and on the weekends. So you're kind of understanding how he's getting wrapped up in this. And when Jonathan had moved to Texas, Israel actually visited him there regularly. So those guys who were trying to recruit Jonathan likely weren't just strangers, they were probably family and friends. By the time he was 15, Jonathan had finally joined the Sir 13, too. It seems he'd given up on trying to keep them out of his life. No point in fighting the inevitable. Now he and Israel and the other members were the violent ones, attacking the people they'd identified as enemies like members of VDM.

A few weeks before the Mendozas were murdered, Jonathan was involved in another shooting. This time around, he didn't kill anyone. He only injured his target, shooting him in the ankle, but he was definitely on a bad path, which is, I mean, we always say these cases are so gray. And this is so tragic because Jonathan's childhood was destroyed because of senseless gang violence. And now he's the one perpetrating that cycle onto other people.

So around 2011, Jonathan's gang decided to go after Sancho. I'm not sure why exactly, but they attacked him in his home. It was the same incident Sancho later told the police about where Trigger broke into his duplex and afterward he moved out. But Jonathan and his accomplice didn't know that. When they decided to kill Sancho, they went to the old address they already knew about.

And on accident, they ended up attacking the Mendoza family. Now, oddly, Samuel Mendoza didn't even look like Sancho. This is what you were saying earlier. It's unclear if Jonathan knew his target very well though. Maybe when he broke in, he had no idea this was the wrong family. He just saw a Latino man in the living room and opened fire. Either way, it's not clear why he and his accomplice killed Maria.

Even if they thought she was Sancho's wife or girlfriend, they should have known she had nothing to do with their gang war. And then also pulling a gun on a three-year-old? Again, it's hard to say what Jonathan and the other shooter were thinking. Neither one ever explained their motives, and frankly, there's nothing they could say

to justify their actions. That's a good point, because they pulled a gun on this three-year-old. Don't you think at that point they go, maybe we have the wrong house? Yeah. And instead, they went probably full steam ahead as we're gonna kill this three-year-old too.

So obviously they arrested Jonathan and the police interrogate him for eight hours. And initially he refused to talk at all. He said he wanted to speak to a lawyer and the police left him alone while they waited for an attorney to arrive. The minutes ticked by and Jonathan paced in his cell. He was nervous. During that time, he must have had second thoughts about waiting for counsel because at one point, after he'd been on his own for about 40 minutes, he knocked on the door to get the police's attention.

He wanted to talk after all. And the detectives were surprised. They asked if he was sure. Can you go back? Yes, you can go back. I think you just have to be read your rights again and go through the whole process again. And have to be coherent, or the cops

have to make sure you're coherent enough to say, no, I want to talk to you now. Yeah. And the cops do follow protocol here. They're not like, OK, let's go. They say, wait, are you sure? Are you sure you don't want a lawyer? They explain the legal implications

of giving a statement now. And Jonathan said, yeah, it's fine. Like I want to talk. He agreed to sign paperwork saying he was waiving his right to an attorney. Then he confessed to knowing a bit about the murders, but only because according to him, he'd heard through the grapevine. Jonathan said he didn't have anything to do with the home invasion or the double homicide.

He just knew the people who had done it when the detectives asked him about the layout of the Mendoza's duplex He described it perfectly even drew a sketch that matched the real units blueprints Jonathan claimed he only knew these details because the real killers had been bragging to him But the detectives are like dude, we don't buy your story. That's hard. How do you know the layout of a home by somebody telling you? Someone will tell me the cross streets of a place and where a restaurant is and I still get... Not to mention the guns used in the murder were found in a house he were hiding in the attic of. Yeah, there's no way they were bragging about the kitchen was on the right side,

the living room was on the left now. Right. So the detectives pressured Jonathan to give better answers and eventually he changes his story. He admitted, okay, fine, I know these details because I was in the Mendoza home, but he's like, I didn't kill anyone. I was just there. I was a bystander.

It was the most he would ever confess, but it was enough for the police. He knew so much about the duplex's layout. He'd been found with the murder weapons. It was enough for them to charge him with the homicides. And he's obviously not ratting out who did it. No. So in 2015, Jonathan went on trial.

When prosecutors presented the evidence against him, they also read some rap lyrics that he'd written before his arrest. This reminds me of the court battle that is going on with, I forget who, another rapper and they keep- He did he? No, no, no, no, no. It's blanking me, I should notice, but they keep reading his song lyrics out in court.

And if you watch like TikToks and different videos on it, it's hilarious. Like it matches his crimes? I mean, yes and no, but it's just hilarious them reading these lyrics and not like in a song format. It just, it's kind of awkward and it's funny. I get it, I get it. In his lyrics of his rap, he described how he'd quote, kick in the door and kill people by spraying bullets.

In other words, he wrote about a homicide that was strikingly similar to Samuel and Maria's murders. But that wasn't the only evidence they brought against him. The investigators had identified on their own another conspirator, a getaway driver who testified against Jonathan. He said Jonathan and his uncle Israel broke into the Mendoza home

because they thought a rival gang member lived there. He confirmed the murders were premeditated and that he drove the killers there and then took them home afterwards. So this guy says, yeah, not only was it Jonathan, but it was Israel who did it with him. I'm guessing he got complete immunity for that. Yeah, I didn't read anything about him

getting any time for this. So thanks to evidence like this, Jonathan was found guilty of both murders plus lesser charges related to burglary and stolen weapons. During his sentencing hearing, Maria's sister, Julia, talked about how it felt to lose her sister and Samwell. She said she was afraid of everyone now, all the time.

She couldn't find a babysitter for her 12 year old daughter because that fear was always in the back of her mind. 100%. I mean, if someone can just kick your door down and spray you down with bullets and you had absolutely no tie to them and no reason, that's terrifying. This is what I was gonna say

at the beginning of the episode. I've been watching a lot of different YouTube videos about this. The different types of front doors and locks and how big of a difference it makes on someone kicking it down. There's doors where you kick it once, that thing is opening right up, and there's doors where they're kicking it 15, 20 times and nothing's opening. I don't know, it's just, it's kind of crazy

how big of a difference that stuff makes. Also makes me realize, I don't know what type of door we got. She even says that like she understands that nobody has a good reason to hurt her, but nobody had a good reason to hurt her sister and brother-in-law either. That didn't stop them from getting murdered. And she focused on how much their two sons,

Jacob and Jorge, were still struggling with their parents' deaths. The trial took place three years after the homicides, so by now Jacob was six years old. But Julia explained how he was still devastated and lost because of what he went through. Oh, I can't imagine the trauma. It's horrible. Again, she used a translator for her testimony. So according to Julia,

he actually spoke openly about the murder he'd witnessed. Like the traumatic event was blazed in his three-year-old mind. The six-year-old? Yes. Wow. He also became frightened whenever Julia or her brother left home. Like something bad might happen if they weren't around.

PTSD for sure. Oh, for sure. His older brother, Jorge, was also trying to cope after this time. He was for sure. Oh, for sure. His older brother, Jorge, was also trying to cope after this time, he was struggling too. Oh man. Julia tried to help Jorge by getting him into therapy, but he just kept shutting down her efforts. He insisted he was fine,

even though to all appearances he wasn't. So this may be the most tragic element of this entire story. Jonathan's whole life changed for the worse when his father was murdered, right? Up until that point, he'd been a pretty sweet, innocent boy. And now two more little boys were in the same exact situation. Lost without their parents,

dealing with these big feelings of grief and anger. The crazy part is the family wasn't even in. No. A gang or drugs. They were just living there. Yeah. All of this is happening to these boys at an age when they shouldn't have to grapple with that kind of loss at all. I hope they were able to get the support they needed so the cycle didn't continue with them.

Jonathan was sentenced to two life terms without the possibility of parole. When he learned he'd be going away to prison for the rest of his life terms without the possibility of parole. Okay. When he learned he'd be going away to prison for the rest of his life, he only had one request. He asked the judge if he could hug his mother, but the judge declined to give him permission. Not because he wanted to be cruel, but because courtrooms had strict rules about that sort of thing. He did say Jonathan could ask the bailiff if it was okay with him, and I'm not sure

how that conversation went. A year later, his uncle and alleged conspirator, Israel Vasquez, faced a jury too for his role. But even though they heard a lot of the same information, they came to a very different conclusion. It seems they didn't totally buy the prosecutor's arguments against Israel. The getaway driver testified against him,

the same guy who'd been the star witness against Jonathan, but Israel's lawyers did a good job of undermining his credibility. Before he supposedly decided to come clean, he'd changed his story a lot. Given his history of lying, there was no real reason to think he was telling the truth.

Now, without his testimony, there was nothing definitively putting Israel at the scene of the crime, except for the fact that the guns were there. Wow, okay. Except for the fact that his guns that he owns in his house were there, but nah, he probably wasn't there, right? So, the court still found him guilty on stolen gun charges and they acquitted him for the murder. So he walked free with a sentence of time served. So to date, Jonathan is the only person who's been convicted for Maria and Samuel's murders. That's even though there were clearly two shooters. There was no way Jonathan could have aimed and fired both those guns simultaneously. And I do want to note that since his conviction,

Jonathan's been working his way through the appeals process. In 2018, he managed to get his sentence thrown out. In simple terms, this means he was still considered legally guilty of the murders, but he convinced the courts to reconsider those two life terms without parole. During the new hearing, the prosecutors argued hard against giving him a more lenient penalty. They pointed out that during his time in prison, Jonathan still hadn't been able to stay away from gang activity.

He joined a prison gang and he had tattoos to prove it. Ultimately, the judge upheld the original ruling. Jonathan was stuck with his two life sentences and no parole. As of today, he's still in prison serving his time. It's unclear to me if he ever distanced himself from those prison gangs or if he's still in prison serving his time. It's unclear to me if he ever distanced himself from those prison gangs or if he's still caught up in the cycle of violence. And that brings us back to the point I opened this episode with. Jonathan made his choices, but Samuel and Maria Mendoza didn't do anything wrong. They rented a duplex. They probably didn't know the previous owner

was being targeted by a violent gang. Even if they did realize that, they had no reason to think their address would put them in danger, especially an entire year later. They kept their doors locked, they stayed out of trouble. There's nothing they did that a reasonable person could argue was wrong. Anyone would have made the same choices, which can be really unsettling.

I feel like and I don't know the rules and regulations behind this, but I feel like if you know someone from a gang member is living at your duplex and then they move and someone else is coming in, I feel like stuff like that should have to be disclosed. I don't think it does unless there's rules around people who've died, but I don't think there's rules such as that. Well, I added in that I couldn't find whether or not they knew.

There is a chance they were told. It had been a year. Like at this point, they probably weren't thinking anything was gonna happen. That's true too. What the, yeah. So sometimes the world can be a violent place. Everyone to some extent wants to tell themselves

they'll be okay, so long as they just keep their doors locked, they don't share identifiable information with strangers. You know, if you take basic steps to protect yourself, nothing bad will happen. Yeah, and majority of the time, I think that's true. But clearly the Mendoza family showed this isn't always the case. And maybe we'd all benefit from focusing less on questions about what the victim could have done or what they should have done differently.

Instead, let's make a point of appreciating the people we have, the time we get with them. You never know when it might be abruptly cut short. And that is the case of Samuel and Maria Mendoza. The time we get with them, you never know when it might be abruptly cut short. And that is the case of Samuel and Maria Mendoza. I hate when they like, they weren't involved in anything at all. They were just chilling. They were just living, living their life and they got brutally killed. And then the kid lost his family and then that's just trauma and then that's

just going to continue to snowball forward like it's not just as simple as oh Two people got killed No, you have it's never just as simple as that the trauma of being in the house when your parents were killed Yeah and then the trauma of being at your uncle's house while the rest of your family was going through this traumatic thing and you Have survived like there's so much wrapped up in this. I know.

All right, you guys, that was our case and we will see you next time with another episode. Stay safe out there. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.