Man who killed estranged wife in west Las Vegas apartment gets life without parole

Roidan Durruthy Mendoza had killed his estranged wife, said the victim’s daughter, Mariam Martinez.

Martinez was scared for herself and her sister.

“The only thing I could do, that I was thinking was: I had to protect what I had left,” the now-17-year-old said in court Wednesday. “So I grabbed the knife on the ground and I was planning to kill him because why would I let a man that killed my mother live?”

She said she stabbed Mendoza, who was not her father, wherever she could, and he tried to stab her and managed to cut her hand. She was smaller than he was and not very strong, but she found the strength to push him away, she told District Judge Michelle Leavitt.

Leavitt ordered Mendoza to serve a life without parole prison sentence.

Mendoza, 40, pleaded guilty in August to a count of murder with use of a deadly weapon in connection with the August 2023 killing of Marillorky Tamayo Cruz at her mother’s apartment at the Destinations Spring Valley complex at 3925 S. Jones Blvd. near West Flamingo Road.

Prosecutor: Tamayo Cruz wanted to end cycle of violence, abuse

His attorneys suggested that the stabbing actually triggered the fatal shooting and argued that Mendoza did not want to hurt Martinez.

“The defendant at no point in time during this case has shown any due regard and respect for the sanctity of life,” Deputy District Attorney Corey Hallquist said.

The prosecutor told the judge that Tamayo Cruz had decided to separate from Mendoza and wanted to end a “cycle of violence” and abuse.

At a Family Court hearing, a judge awarded her possession of their house and child support, he indicated. Mendoza had just weeks to leave the house.

“Marillorky finally has a fresh new step in her life and is excited for the next chapter,” but Mendoza was upset about losing control and sought revenge, Hallquist said.

Mendoza left court, went home and cut the gas line to the stove, then packed clothes and went to the apartment of his wife’s mother, according to the prosecutor. He wanted to switch vehicles with his wife, who wasn’t ready to make the swap, Hallquist said.

Eventually, the prosecutor said, he shot 11 times into the apartment’s locks and broke in. Mendoza found Tamayo Cruz in a bedroom and shot her twice, including “an execution-style shot to the forehead,” he said.

Mendoza also shot through a door, injuring the ex-boyfriend of the victim’s sister and the victim’s mother, who was nearly killed, Hallquist said.

After witnessing the killing of her mother, Martinez did “one of the bravest things that I’ve ever seen,” Hallquist said.

She was only 14 and didn’t know if other family members were dead, he said. In an effort to protect her baby sister, she attacked Mendoza with a knife, stabbing him in the back. Mendoza tried to stab her in the gut, but she blocked the knife and he fled, Hallquist said.

Mendoza apologized and said through an interpreter that he had “no intention to harm anyone.”

He added: “It was not a premeditated homicide.”

‘Red zone of emotions’

Chief Deputy Special Public Defender Charles Cano said Mendoza has accepted responsibility, but was threatened, attacked and provoked by Ivan Brizuela-Esparza, the ex-boyfriend of his wife’s sister.

Speaking through an interpreter, Brizuela-Esparza said after court that the defense arguments blaming him were “an excuse” and “theater.”

Mendoza is “a loving father” who has no criminal history, Cano said, and planned to vacate the house and pay child support. He was trying to fix the stove, not blow the house up, the defense attorney said.

Cano also said the gun fired as Martinez and Mendoza struggled and she stabbed him. The events after the stabbing were “tragic and accidental,” he wrote in a sentencing memorandum.

“He knows he shouldn’t have lost control,” Cano said in court. “But unfortunately, he did lose control. He didn’t want this to happen, he never wished it did, but being upset and angry and injured, he entered into this red zone of emotions.”

When it was time for Marilu Cruz Tamayo, the victim’s mother, to address the court, she took a seat at the prosecution table in Leavitt’s courtroom and sobbed.

“My soul hurts so much,” she said through an interpreter. “Why God? Why?”

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.