Tarrant DA’s 15-year deal for murderer accused of killing witness is ‘a joke,’ cop says

Mayra Guerra was in the front passenger seat of a Mitsubishi Montero when she became an eyewitness to a murder .

She cooperated with the police.

In the hours after Guerra watched the man she was dating shoot a stranger on a northside Fort Worth corner, she described the killing to officers. As he stood along a street, Fernando Mendoza gestured to Jesus Rios, who was speeding as he drove, to slow down. Rios got out and fired a round into Mendoza’s face.

Guerra cooperated with prosecutors and was sworn as a witness for the state.

She was not rewarded for her honorable effort. Rather, the 37-year-old mother of five was slain because of what she saw, authorities said.

Rios was indicted on murder in the February 2020 Mendoza homicide and was on bond in Tarrant County when on Sept. 8, 2023, he cut off a GPS monitor and fled to Mexico .

Under circumstances that are not clear, Guerra joined Rios in Mexico, possibly against her will, Guerra’s sister said.

In late September 2023, Rios strangled Guerra in the Mexican town where she was born, then headed to the border, law enforcement authorities concluded. There, he was taken into custody on an arrest warrant on the Tarrant County bond violation in connection with Mendoza’s killing.

After Guerra was killed, a Fort Worth Police Department detective began an investigation of her death that in part would offer an alternative to her live testimony from the witness stand at a potential trial.

In many situations, a witness cannot use in testimony the words of another person that the testifying witness asserts he or she heard. However, a forfeiture by wrongdoing hearsay exception in rules of evidence makes admissible at trial the observations and statements of a witness who dies at the hand of the defendant.

Using location information connected to Rios’ cellphone, Fort Worth police proved by a preponderance of the evidence that Rios caused Guerra’s death for the purpose of preventing her from testifying. The results of a DNA test that police expect will indicate Guerra’s blood was on Rios’ clothing are pending.

The state and defense engaged in plea negotiations. In March 2023, the district attorney’s office offered 50 years in prison, according to the district clerk record.

Last week in Criminal District Court No. 3, Rios pleaded guilty to the murder of Mendoza. Under the terms of a plea bargain, a judge sentenced him to 15 years in prison. Rios, who is 48, will be eligible for parole when he has served half of the prison term.

Upon a guilty verdict on murder at trial, a jury or judge would in this case have considered a prison term of 15 to 99 years or life.

The lead Homicide Unit detective in the Mendoza case described in an interview with a Star-Telegram reporter his disapproval of the plea bargain.

“All you’re doing is telling the citizens of Fort Worth: kill an eyewitness and you’ll get away with something,” Detective Thomas O’Brien said.

Guerra had taken the correct course, according to police and her family. She had done the right thing.

“Fifteen years is a joke for the murder itself,” Detective O’Brien said.

There are few extraneous bad acts, as a defendant’s wrongdoing beyond the offense charged in an indictment is known, worse than killing an eyewitness.

Had the case gone to trial, prosecutors could have introduced evidence that attempted to show that Rios killed Guerra.

That the homicide occurred outside the United States would not have restricted it from inclusion in the state’s case. The killing could have been calculated in the punishment determination if a jury or judge found the state proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Rios intentionally or knowingly caused Guerra’s death.

Authorities in Mexico filed an arrest warrant for murder in which Rios is the defendant.

In interviews with a reporter, relatives of Mendoza and Guerra offered criticisms of the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office’s agreement to the plea bargain.

A spokesperson for District Attorney Phil Sorrells responded to a question about the agreement with a statement that noted that Guerra’s death occurred outside the United States.

“In every case, we evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of our evidence and make a decision on going to trial or offering a plea. Then we inform the family of the victim. We did so in this case. The family was present for the plea,” the district attorney’s office wrote.

“This office is not involved in the case regarding Mayra Guerra, as that offense occurred in Mexico,” the district attorney’s office wrote.

Assistant District Attorney Idris Akinpelu prosecuted the case.

Steve Gebhardt, a defense attorney who was appointed to represent Rios, did not respond to a request for his assessment of the disposition of the Mendoza case or of Rios’ alleged involvement in Guerra’s death.

Magistrate Judge Rainey Webb was presiding when Rios pleaded guilty.

In an interview, Myriam Rojo said that her sister, who worked as a housekeeper, was sweet.

Addiction led Guerra to begin a relationship with Rios, Rojo said.

“She was always, you know, with her kids,” Rojo said. “Always with her kids.”

In a December 2023 letter to the court, Rojo wrote, “our life has turned gray since September 26, 2023. I plead that you would please take into consideration the death of my sister and all of the pain caused to a family on Jesus Javier Rios[’] punishment.”

Guerra’s eldest daughter said she was distressed by the 15-year prison term.

“I honestly thought it was going to be more time. I’m really disappointed in the DA’s office,” Abby Guerra said.

Relatives of Mendoza also derided the plea bargain and said they felt as though they could not raise their objections to it during a meeting with prosecutor Akinpelu.

The agreement did not make sense, the victim’s sister, Christy Mendoza, said in an interview.

“What was the rush? To close a case and be done?” she asked.

After Guerra’s death, Rios was arrested at a U.S.-Mexico port of entry in El Paso, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Rios entered the U.S. using a fictitious name when he presented authorities with a Texas identification card at the Paso Del Norte port of entry.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers believed Rios was making a false claim of U.S. citizenship and escorted him to a secondary exam area for further processing. They determined Rios was being sought on a Tarrant County bond violation.

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Mendoza, who was 34, was walking with a woman in the 2400 block of Roosevelt Avenue when Rios drove up to the pair and yelled, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

Neither knew Rios.

An argument between Mendoza and Rios ensued, leading to Rios parking his vehicle and leaving the SUV with a gun, according to the affidavit.

Rios pointed the gun at Mendoza’s face and said, “just because” when he pulled the trigger, the woman with Mendoza told police.

Mendoza was taken to a hospital and died four days later.

Police found at Guerra’s house the SUV Rios was driving at the time of the shooting, a .45-caliber handgun, ejected cartridge casings and ammunition.

When Guerra’s body was found in a Mexican field, shoelaces were tied to her neck.