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Thread: Manuel Mata III Sentenced to LWOP in 2013 NV Slaying of Maria Flores and her Daughter, Elizabeth Gomez

  1. #1
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    Manuel Mata III Sentenced to LWOP in 2013 NV Slaying of Maria Flores and her Daughter, Elizabeth Gomez


    Elizabeth Gomez and her mother, Maria Flores




    Trial starts for Las Vegas man in killing of girlfriend, her daughter

    By David Ferrera
    Las Vegas Review-Journal

    Maria Flores wanted out of her tumultuous three-year relationship with Manuel Mata III, prosecutors told jurors Wednesday during opening statements of his capital murder trial.

    She told him she wanted to leave, and she had pulled pictures from the wall of their home in the 5500 block of Cotton Street, though he had tried to convince her to stay with him.

    On the morning of June 1, 2013, prosecutors said, Mata shot and killed 43-year-old Flores and her 17-year-old daughter, Elizabeth Gomez, along with shooting her 4-year-old daughter, Sophia Trujillo, in the neck. Then, he fired a shotgun blast into his chin.

    Mata survived with a facial deformity and is facing the death penalty if convicted of murder.

    The youngest child also survived and still suffers from physical and mental disabilities, said Chief Deputy District Attorney John Giordani.

    Along with two counts of first-degree murder, Mata faces charges of attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon, trafficking in a controlled substance and three counts of possession of a stolen firearm.

    His defense attorney, David Schieck, told jurors that Mata admitted to shooting himself, but he argued that an intruder shot Flores and the girls.

    “It’s our position that the state will not have proved that Manny Mata committed these shootings, because he didn’t,” Schieck said.

    The prosecutor argued that Mata had become increasingly angry and jealous in their relationship. Investigators found 41 grams of cocaine inside the home, along with 13 firearms, including three stolen weapons. Police said at the time that Mata had financial troubles and had been drinking heavily before the shooting.

    Schieck said that the day before the shooting was “a fairly normal day in the Mata household.”

    In a text message, Flores had expressed anger with Mata, Schieck said, but by the end of the exchange they had traded “I love yous.”

    On the morning of the shooting, Mata’s 19-year-old daughter was in a locked bedroom, unharmed. She called her grandfather after she heard gunfire, the attorneys said.

    As police responded to a 911 call from Mata’s father, who discovered him and Flores in a pool of blood on the floor of the home, Mata aimed his shotgun at officers, according to Giordani and officers’ testimony.

    The officers said they did not fire at him, because they did not know whether Flores was still alive.

    Giordani asked jurors to “hold the defendant accountable for these heinous acts.”

    https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/...ghter-1887255/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Is that a skin graft on his face? What happened? Did he have that before this incident?

    Edit: never mind, I just googled and it says it’s from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on the night of the murders.

    So the state took him to the hospital to save his life, only to try and kill him again. Bizarre. Woulda been easier and less expensive to just let him die, no?
    Last edited by Opinions; 11-09-2019 at 08:23 PM.

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    Alleged east Las Vegas killer’s daughter testifies on his behalf

    By David Ferrera
    Las Vegas Review-Journal

    Manuel Mata III’s daughter testified Wednesday that she hid in her bedroom closet after hearing gunshots that killed Mata’s girlfriend and the girlfriend’s 17-year-old daughter.

    Prosecutors have said during Mata’s capital murder trial that Maria Flores wanted out of her tumultuous three-year relationship before he killed her in June 2013.

    Xcliklalis Mata, now 24, countered that by testifying that she heard screaming before the gunfire and that her father left the house.

    “It was like, boom boom, and it was a lot of them,” she testified on her father’s behalf about the gunshots she heard, speaking softly and crying. “I got up and locked my door and ran into the closet.”

    After the shots rang out, she said, she looked out her bedroom window and saw her father walk into the home in the 5500 block of Cotton Street in east Las Vegas.

    She said she called her grandfather — Mata’s father.

    “I told him there was gunshots, and I didn’t know what to do,” she said. “Then I heard the Suburban drive up into the driveway. I saw my dad walking up. I was scared. I heard the last gunshot.”

    Prosecutors have said Mata fired the shots that killed 43-year-old Flores and her 17-year-old daughter, Elizabeth Gomez, and that he shot her 4-year-old daughter, Sophia Trujillo, in the neck. Then, he fired a shotgun blast into his chin.

    Mata survived with a facial deformity and faces the death penalty if convicted of murder.

    The youngest child also survived and suffers from physical and mental disabilities, prosecutors said.

    Through testimony, defense attorneys tried to paint a different picture: that Mata quarrelled with Flores the morning of the shooting but left before she was killed by intruders.

    He returned, found Flores and her daughters shot and then pointed a gun at his chin and pulled the trigger, prosecutors said.

    On cross examination from Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo, Xcliklalis Mata acknowledged that her testimony was “significantly different” from in 2013, when she told police she did not hear yelling in the home before the shots.

    The prosecutor asked why she did not call her father after hearing the shots.

    “I always call my grandfather,” she said.

    “Why is not the next phone call you make to your father?” DiGiacomo asked.

    “Because I’m in shock.”

    She told police that the doors to the house were usually locked at night.

    “Can you explain to me how that door was locked if it wasn’t your father who had done the shooting?” the prosecutor asked.

    “It could’ve been unlocked,” she replied. “I’m not sure.”

    One of Mata’s attorneys, Gary Modafferi, then asked, “Are you testifying falsely to protect your father?”

    “No,” she said.

    In the weeks leading up to her death, Flores told Manuel Mata she wanted to leave, and she had pulled pictures from the wall of their home, though he had tried to persuade her to stay.

    Along with two counts of first-degree murder, Mata faces charges of attempted murder with use of a deadly weapon, trafficking in a controlled substance and three counts of possession of a stolen firearm.

    Prosecutors argued that Mata had become increasingly angry and jealous in the relationship. Investigators found 41 grams of cocaine inside the home, along with 13 firearms, including three stolen weapons. Police said at the time that Mata had financial troubles and had been drinking heavily before the shooting.

    Jurors could begin deliberating Mata’s guilt Friday.

    https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/...ehalf-1892111/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  4. #4
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    Edited:

    Las Vegas man convicted of killing girlfriend, her daughter

    By David Ferrera
    Las Vegas Review-Journal

    Jurors found Mata not guilty of three counts of possession of a stolen firearm.

    Flores’ younger child, Sophia Trujillo, was critically wounded by a gunshot to her neck.

    After shooting the others, Mata fired a shotgun blast into his chin and survived with a facial deformity.

    His defense attorneys have acknowledged Mata shot himself but argued that an intruder killed Flores and her daughter and shot the younger child before Mata arrived home and discovered the crime scene.

    Throughout the trial, prosecutors tried to show that Mata had become increasingly angry and jealous in the relationship. Investigators found 41 grams of cocaine in the home, along with 13 firearms, including three reportedly stolen weapons.

    Mata had financial troubles and had been drinking heavily before the shooting.

    Jurors found Mata not guilty of three counts of possession of a stolen firearm.

    https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/...ghter-1895704/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  5. #5
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Edited:

    Las Vegas man sentenced for killing girlfriend, her daughter

    By Max Michor
    Las Vegas Review-Journal

    A Las Vegas man was sentenced to life in prison without parole after fatally shooting his girlfriend and her 17-year-old daughter in 2013, as well as critically wounding her 4-year-old daughter.

    https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/...ghter-1897269/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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