Results 1 to 5 of 5

Thread: Frederick Mendoza - Nevada

Hybrid View

Previous Post Previous Post   Next Post Next Post
  1. #1
    Guest
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    5,534

    Frederick Mendoza - Nevada




    Summary of Offense:

    Mendoza, a Vietnam War veteran, was sentenced to death for raping and killing a 68-year-old woman at an assisted living apartment complex in 2007. Frederick Mendoza pleaded guilty in District Court to killing Rita Kremberg. Mendoza, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, sexually assaulted and stabbed Kremberg 18 times and slit her throat with a steak knife, authorities said. Mendoza and Kremberg lived at Destination Senior Living at Spring Valley, near Jones Boulevard and Flamingo Road, but didn't know each other.

    Mendoza was sentenced to death on November 25, 2008.

  2. #2
    Guest
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    5,534
    November 26, 2008

    A Vietnam War veteran was sentenced to death Tuesday for raping and killing a 68-year-old woman at an assisted living apartment complex in 2007.

    Frederick Mendoza, 62, pleaded guilty in District Court last week to killing Rita Kremberg.

    Mendoza showed little emotion when the Clark County jury delivered the sentence. Officers returned him to the county jail immediately after the hearing.

    "We're very disappointed," said James Oronoz, one of Mendoza's attorneys.

    Mendoza, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, sexually assaulted and stabbed Kremberg 18 times and slit her throat with a steak knife, authorities said. Mendoza and Kremberg lived at Destination Senior Living at Spring Valley, near Jones Boulevard and Flamingo Road, but didn't know each other.

    On the day his trial was set to begin last week, Mendoza pleaded guilty to murder with a deadly weapon with a victim older than 60 and sexual assault with a deadly weapon with an elderly victim. After he pleaded guilty, the case went directly to the penalty phase, where the jury decided to sentence Mendoza to death.

    "He wanted to accept responsibility," Oronoz said.

    Kremberg was originally from New York. She lived in Las Vegas for about nine years with her husband, who died in 2002. They didn't have any children, but a friend testified that Kremberg and her husband had been active in raising money for medical centers for kids.

    Her friend, Gene Fogleman, said Kremberg was afraid of the crime in New York City and thought she'd be safer in Las Vegas.

    Kremberg was found dead in her apartment on March 3, 2007. She was naked from the waist down and had multiple stab wounds. Her attacker didn't steal anything from her apartment.

    Las Vegas detectives found Mendoza's fingerprints on a liquor bottle in Kremberg's apartment. Mendoza denied knowing Kremberg or ever being in her apartment when homicide detectives asked him about it. He had lived at the Destination Senior Living facility about three months.

    Mendoza's DNA was found under Kremberg's fingernails and on her genitals, said county prosecutor Robert Daskas.

    Daskas also told the jury that Mendoza had a prior conviction for a sexual crime in Las Vegas. In 1977, he met a woman at a hotel bar, followed her to her hotel room, choked her and raped her, Daskas said.

    The victim wanted to press charges against Mendoza because she believed he would kill the next time, Daskas said.

    Mendoza pleaded guilty to battery with the intent to commit rape in 1978 and was out of prison by 1979.

    Oronoz painted a more sympathetic picture of Mendoza. He told the jury that Mendoza's father left him at a young age and his stepfather was abusive. He was kicked out of his house at 14 and was shuttled between relatives. He joined the Marines and became a rifleman in Vietnam during the war.

    His experiences in Vietnam deeply affected him, said Robert Draskovich, another of Mendoza's attorneys. He said Mendoza saw Vietnamese corpses used as targets by U.S. troops, women raped and a soldier who carried body parts from enemy soldiers as trophies.

    The Department of Veterans Affairs ruled that Mendoza suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and granted him a 100 percent disability, Draskovich said.

    He was awarded the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry and other medals.

    "He served his country," Oronoz said. "He served his country honorably."

    (Source: ReviewJournal.com)

  3. #3
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    Death row inmate seeks to have sentence overturned

    A man sentenced to death for raping and stabbing to death a 69-year-old woman at a Las Vegas senior complex in 2007 is seeking to have his sentence overturned.

    The court will hear oral arguments on Monday at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas in the case of Frederick J. Mendoza.

    Rita Kremberg was found dead in her apartment. She had been stabbed 18 times and her throat was slit with a steak knife.

    Mendoza and Kremberg lived in the senior apartment complex. The prosecution produced Mendoza’s fingerprints on the bloody knife used in the slaying and his DNA was under the fingernails of the victim.

    Mendoza, now 65, pleaded innocent initially but changed his plea after a District Court jury was selected. He said the murder and sexual assault was premeditated and deliberate.

    He offered 30 mitigating circumstances, including that he was a Vietnam veteran and suffered from post traumatic stress disorder. Before trial, he told a detective, “Blame it on Vietnam.”

    The jury, however, called for the death penalty.

    In his appeal, Mendoza says he pleaded guilty because his trial attorney suggested he would get a lighter sentence. That was error on the part of his lawyer, Mendoza says.

    Mendoza, who is Hispanic, also says the Clark County district attorney’s office erred by using its peremptory challenges to remove every qualified Hispanic from the jury.

    He also says a 1977 rape conviction should not have been introduced into evidence at the penalty hearing.

    The prosecution maintains that the peremptory challenges of the three potential Hispanic jurors were for non-race issues.

    There has not been an execution in Nevada since April 2006, when Daryl Mack was put to death.

    http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011...ce-overturned/

  4. #4
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    33,217
    In today's United States Supreme Court orders, Mendoza's petition for writ of certiorari was DENIED.

    Lower Ct: Supreme Court of Nevada
    Case Nos.: (53355)
    Decision Date: May 23, 2012
    Rehearing Denied: August 1, 2012
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  5. #5
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    20,875
    Death sentence vacated for Las Vegas veteran in rape, murder

    By David Ferrera
    Las Vegas Review-Journal

    A Las Vegas judge on Thursday vacated the death penalty for a Vietnam War veteran who raped and killed a 68-year-old woman more than 10 years ago.

    Frederick Mendoza, now 71, pleaded guilty in 2008 in the slaying of Rita Kremberg. But he immediately appealed his sentence, which was handed down by a jury after a penalty hearing.

    Under a deal with prosecutors made this month, Mendoza agreed that he would waive any challenge to his conviction and not appeal a sentence of life without parole.

    Mendoza had post-traumatic stress disorder after serving more than 18 months as a Marine in Vietnam, said his lawyer, Jamie Resch, who called the jury’s sentence “fundamentally unreliable.”

    “This hard-fought and extremely rare agreement helps treat a combat veteran fairly and protects the state’s interest by ensuring Mr. Mendoza lives out his remaining days in prison,” said Resch, who had not spoken with Mendoza since District Judge Michael Villani signed off on the agreement. “I’m certain he’s very happy with this. He’s older and just wants to live out his days with the most freedom he can as an inmate.”

    Kremberg was sexually assaulted and stabbed 18 times by Mendoza, and her throat was slit with a steak knife in March 2007, authorities said. The two were residents at Destinations Spring Valley, a senior-living facility near Jones Boulevard and Flamingo Road.

    Prosecutors told jurors who decided Mendoza’s penalty that he had a prior conviction for a sexual crime in Las Vegas.

    https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/...n-rape-murder/
    "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

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •