Raul Meza: Judge denies plea offer presented for suspected ‘serial killer’

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Raul Meza, a convicted killer who faces two additional murder charges, was in court for a pretrial conference Tuesday.

Defense attorneys approached the state and Judge Julie Kocurek with a plea offer, which Kocurek denied, saying she would not accept an offer that gives Meza the option for parole.

“I need it to be life without parole for me to accept it or it needs to be tried by a jury,” Kocurek said.

Meza killed 8-year-old Kendra Page in 1982. The conviction came as a result of a plea deal. Due to lax state laws at the time, he got out of prison after 11 years for good behavior.

The Austin Police Department arrested him in May 2023 in connection to the murder of Jesse Fraga, 80, of Pflugerville. When Meza turned himself in for that crime, police said he implicated himself in the 2019 killing of Gloria Lofton, 65, of east Austin.

Russell Hunt, Jr., one of Meza’s attorneys, said he presented an offer of life in prison for one murder and 20 years for another. Given how Texas law works, that would allow Meza the possibility of parole after 40 years. Meza is currently 63 years old.

Kocurek said “on behalf of the community” she would not accept an offer than includes parole.

“It’s clear the message she’s giving is that she doesn’t ever want there to be any question about whether Mr. Meza is ever released on parole,” Hunt said.

Family members of Page, Fraga and Lofton have long opposed a plea deal following what happened in the 1982 case.

“Made me feel a lot better about going into this now because at least she understands what we were looking for and what we were fighting for,” said Christina Fultz, one of Lofton’s daughters.

Meza’s attorneys said his client has expressed remorse.

“Mr. Meza is ready for this ordeal to be over, not just for himself, but for the whole community,” Hunt said.

His co-counsel Brian Erskine added “the unfortunate truth of this is that there’s nothing that’s going to make these families feel better, regardless of what he has to say.”

Family members of Page, Lofton and Fraga said they did not believe Meza felt any remorse.

“No. No. Never. Not at all. Not a thing behind those eyes,” the group of family members said when asked.

When police arrested Meza in 2023, former investigators called him a “serial killer,” and APD said it is investigating additional deaths he may be connected to.

Previous coverage: APD ‘deeply sorry’ about DNA ‘oversight’ in Lofton’s murder case

In early April, the Austin Police Department (APD) addressed an internal investigation into the handling of a DNA hit as investigators looked into Lofton’s 2019 death on Sara Drive in east Austin.

Meza’s arrest affidavit stated that in 2020, a DNA profile obtained from a sexual assault kit for Lofton’s matched Meza’s DNA, but police did not arrest Meza at that time , which was roughly four years before Fraga was killed.

Former Police Chief Joseph Chacon, who held the role at the time of Meza’s arrest, launched the internal investigation last year to address what he called “potential investigative lapses,” an APD spokesperson previously told KXAN.

After that internal investigation concluded, APD said a detective working Lofton’s case received information about a DNA hit on Raul Meza but did not follow up. He will not face any discipline, the department said, because state law prohibits the formal discipline of officers more than 180 days after an incident.

Interim Chief Robin Henderson issued the following statement on this matter:

“The Austin Police Department is deeply sorry about the oversight related to the DNA Lab Report in the Raul Meza case. We realize the impacts this has on the case itself, community and most importantly the victims and their families. As soon as the error was brought to our attention, we addressed it as quickly as we could to identify how it happened and implemented policies to avoid incidents like this from reoccurring. Since this occurrence, the Austin Police Department has added redundancies into the notification process to ensure this does not happen again.”

Interim APD Chief Robin Henderson

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