From: davidc@wa-wd.com   
      
   Moises Sandoval Mendoza, 41, was executed by lethal injection on 23   
   April 2025 in Huntsville, Texas for the abduction, rape, and murder of   
   a 20-year-old woman.   
      
   On Friday, 12 March 2004, Rachelle Tolleson hosted a party for about   
   fifteen people in her house in Farmersville, in rural northeast Collin   
   County. One of the guests was Mendoza, then 20. Tolleson's best   
   friend, Megan Kennedy, subsequently testified that Tolleson spoke to   
   Mendoza a few times at the party, but she told her she was not   
   interested in him in "that way."   
      
   Sometime after 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 17 March, Tolleson, her   
   five-month-old daughter, Avery, and her mother, Pam O'Neil, went to   
   the store to purchase formula and diapers for Avery. Tolleson visited   
   with her mother at her home for a short time and then went to her own   
   home. She phoned O'Neil around 10:00 p.m. to let her know that she and   
   Avery had arrived home safely.   
      
   At around the same time, Mendoza was at another party with some   
   friends. Efren Gamez testified that two young women left the party at   
   one point and later called to say they were not returning. Hearing   
   this, Mendoza became angry. As he drank more, he became more   
   belligerent, and his verbal outbursts began frightening other female   
   guests. He left the party and returned several times, leaving for the   
   last time between midnight and 1:00 a.m.   
      
   The following morning, O'Neil went to Tolleson's home, as she often   
   did. Tolleson's car was parked in the driveway. The back door was wide   
   open. O'Neil entered and saw a pillow on the floor between the kitchen   
   and the bedroom. The bedroom was in complete disarray. The mattress   
   and box spring were askew, the headboard was broken and lying against   
   the bed, the night stand was pulled away from the wall, and papers   
   were strewn across the floor. Avery was on the bed, cold and wet.   
   Tolleson was not home. O'Neil collected Avery and phoned her husband,   
   who phoned the police.   
      
   Farmersville Police Officer Scott Collins responded and confirmed   
   O'Neil's description of the apparent crime scene. The police began   
   interviewing witnesses, who told them about the party Tolleson hosted   
   the previous Friday.   
      
   Megan Kennedy's boyfriend, Tim Holland, said that he returned to   
   Tolleson's home the day after the party to retrieve some musical   
   instruments he had left. Mendoza and another man were with him.   
   Finding that Tolleson was not home and the doors were locked, Holland   
   and the other man walked around the house looking for a way in. While   
   they were doing that, Mendoza managed to open the locked back door.   
   Learning this, Officer Collins interviewed Mendoza. He told him he had   
   last seen Tolleson at the party.   
      
   Search parties were sent out to look for Tolleson, but were   
   unsuccessful.   
      
   Six days after Tolleson's disappearance, James Powell found a burned   
   body along Brushy Creek, east of Farmersville. It was identified as   
   Tolleson through dental records. Federal Bureau of Investigation   
   technician Jerry Farmer determined that the body had been there at   
   least two days. Scraps of clothing clung to her upper torso, but no   
   clothing was found below her waist. Tall vegetation had been piled on   
   top of the body in an attempt to cover it. An orange rope was tied   
   around her right ankle. Investigators determined that the body was   
   burned nearby and dragged to the creek.   
      
   The medical examiner, Dr. William Rohr, testified that the victim had   
   bruises and hemorrhages in numerous places, but the there was also a   
   deep wound, such as from a knife, in her neck. The cause of death was   
   strangulation or another form of asphyxiation. The body was burned   
   post mortem.   
      
   After further interviews with witnesses, Mendoza was arrested. Once he   
   was in custody, he confessed that he had driven by Tolleson's house   
   late Wednesday night and seen a light on. He backed his truck into the   
   driveway and let himself into the house through the back door without   
   knocking. He said that Tolleson left with him to get a pack of   
   cigarettes. They drove for a little while and then he started choking   
   her "for no reason." She passed out, and he drove her to a field   
   behind his home, where he had sex with her and "choked her again." He   
   then dragged her out of his truck and into the field, where he choked   
   her again until he thought she was dead and "poked her throat" with a   
   knife to "make sure." Mendoza said he left Tolleson's body in the   
   field until Monday, when he was first interviewed. Afraid that the   
   body would be found and connected to him, he moved the body and burned   
   it, then dragged it to the creek.   
      
   At Mendoza's trial, his lawyers did not dispute that he killed   
   Tolleson. Instead, they challenged the state's charges of burglary,   
   kidnapping, and rape that elevated Mendoza's crime to capital murder,   
   claiming that all of Tolleson's conduct with Mendoza was consensual   
   until he decided to kill her "for no reason." The prosecution pointed   
   to the extreme disarray of Tolleson's home, the fact that she had a   
   three-quarter-full carton of cigarettes in her bedroom, and the fact   
   that her infant was left alone in the home with the back door wide   
   open as evidence that she did not voluntarily leave with Mendoza to go   
   buy cigarettes. Mendoza had already confessed that Tolleson was   
   unconscious when he had sex with her, and Megan Kennedy had testified   
   that Tolleson told her she was not interested in him. Mendoza had also   
   already confessed to letting himself into Tolleson's home uninvited.   
      
   At Mendoza's punishment hearing, Robert Ramirez testified that he once   
   saw Mendoza put a pill in a girl's drink at a party. When Ramirez   
   confronted him about it, Mendoza pulled a knife on him and threatened   
   to stab him in the stomach. A witness testified that Mendoza sexually   
   assaulted fourteen-year-old Laura Decker at a party while a friend   
   videotaped it. When the video was shown at another party, Mendoza   
   laughed. Sarah Benedict testified that Mendoza nearly choked her to   
   unconsciousness at a party because she repeatedly asked him for a   
   cigarette, and that he only stopped because two young men pulled him   
   off of her. Other witnesses testified that Mendoza once threw a boy   
   down and stomped on his mouth,  that he threatened to cut two women's   
   throats with a rusty saw over a disagreement, and that he pulled a gun   
   on two women and stole their cars and belongings. Witnesses testified   
   that while in the Collin County Jail, Mendoza fashioned weapons and   
   attacked another prisoner during recreation.   
      
   A jury found Mendoza guilty of capital murder in June 2005 and   
   sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in   
   November 2008. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal   
   court were denied.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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