- Moises Mendoza is set to be executed on April 23 for the murder of 20-year-old Rachelle O'Neil Tolleson in Farmersville, Texas on March 18, 2004.
- Throughout their upbringing in northern Texas, Mendoza and Tolleson attended the same grade school. The weekend before her death, Tolleson hosted a party at her home, which Mendoza attended.
- Initially, Mendoza left Tolleson's body in a field near his house. But after being interviewed by police, he moved her body and set it on fire.
Five years ago this April, a rapist and killer described by one prosecutor as one of the most "violent, sadistic men" he'd ever encountered, was sentenced to Texas' death row.
Now Moises Sandoval Mendoza, 40, is set to die by lethal injection on Wednesday for the murder of 20-year-old Rachelle O'Neil Tolleson on March 18, 2004, in Farmersville, Texas. If the execution moves forward, Mendoza will be the third inmate executed in Texas this year and the 13th in the nation.
At the time of her death, Tolleson was a new mother to her 6-month-old daughter Avery. Tolleson enjoyed activities like scrapbooking and shopping, but her mother Pam O'Neil said it was Avery who was "her oxygen."
"Avery was her life and I was so proud of her when she became a mommy. Everything just came so naturally to her,” O'Neil told The Courier-Gazette about a year after Tolleson's death. "I hate that Avery won’t have memories of her."
Over the years, Mendoza's case has gained a sort of notoriety. In 2006, his case was featured in the 10th season of "Forensic Files" and in 2008, the Investigation Discovery series "Solved" highlighted Tolleson's murder.
On April 2, Mendoza's lawyers asked for the opportunity to challenge Mendoza's conviction in federal court.
As Mendoza's execution approaches, USA TODAY is looking back at the crime, who Mendoza and his victim were and what led him down a path that will end in his own execution.
What was Moises Mendoza convicted of?
In the early hours of March 18, 2004, Rachelle O'Neil Tolleson was at home with her 6-month-old daughter Avery in Farmersville, Texas, a small town about 40 miles northeast of Dallas. Tolleson and Avery lived there alone, as Tolleson was in the middle of a divorce.
Mendoza let himself inside Tolleson's house through a back door that night, he told police, per court documents. The two then left, leaving baby Avery at home, to get a pack of cigarettes, Mendoza told police.
Mendoza told police that he drove a little while before he began to choke Tolleson in his vehicle "for no reason," according to court documents. Mendoza then drove the two to a field near his house, where he raped her before choking her again, court documents say.
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Mendoza told police that he then dragged Tolleson out of his truck and choked her again until he thought she was dead. To make sure, he "poked her throat" with a knife. Mendoza left her body in the field, where it remained for a few days before he was interviewed by police about Tolleson's disappearance, court records say.
Paranoid, Mendoza wrapped Tolleson's body in a tarp and moved it to his cousin's land in a more remote area, just a few miles east of Farmersville. He then dumped the body in a "dug-out pit" and set it on fire to "destroy the fingerprints," he told police, as reported by The Courier Gazette.
A few days later, a man searching for arrowheads found Tolleson's charred body, according to The Courier-Gazette reporting.
Mendoza was convicted of murder and sentenced to death.
Before his conviction and sentencing, Mendoza wrote to his parents, telling them he didn't have a reason for what he did. "I don't know what happened to me at that moment. I turned into the devil and after I did something that I thought was in a dream," Mendoza wrote, according to The Courier-Gazette.
Who is Moises Mendoza?
Neighbors described Mendoza as "hard-working" but said he changed as he got older, recounting a "violent argument" when he pinned down his mother and sister in their front yard once, as previously reported by The Courier-Gazette.
Mendoza graduated high school, where he did "fairly well," court documents state. He received a few high school scholarships and completed about nine months of heating and air-conditioning training upon graduating.
In 2003, Mendoza was arrested for his involvement in two aggravated robberies on the Dallas College Richland Campus, according to The Courier-Gazette reporting. It was while he was out on bail for one of these robberies that Tolleson went missing, the 2006 "Forensic Files" episode explains.
For much of their upbringing in northern Texas, Mendoza and Tolleson were actually in the same grade school classes, Tolleson's mother, Pam O'Neil, explained in a 2006 "Forensic Files" episode that outlines Mendoza's case. And the Friday before Tolleson's murder, Mendoza had been at Tolleson's house for a party of about 15 people, court documents say.
Clinical psychologist Mark Vigen described Mendoza during his trial as "immature" and "psychologically under-developed," claiming that Mendoza enjoyed getting away with "being sneaky" and got angry when others criticized him, as stated in court documents.
During Mendoza's sentencing, former Collin County First Assistant District Attorney Greg Davis described Mendoza as "one of the most violent, sadistic men" he'd ever prosecuted.
Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at USA TODAY. Story idea? Email her atgcross@usatoday.com.
