Martin Mendiola Charged With Murder Just Six Days Before His Release From Prison

Monday, Jan. 4 2010

​Martin Solis Mendiola was just six days away from freedom. An inmate at the Buena Vista Correctional Complex in Colorado, Mendiola had been serving time for a felony conviction after he was caught attempting to sexually abuse a child...

His release date was set for January 5, 2010. But just before he was able to sneak away from prison, authorities made a startling discovery.

On January 24, 2004, Patricia Gonzalez-Arvizu's husband arrived home to his wife's bloodied body laying in the bedroom of their house in Colorado Springs. She'd been raped and stabbed several times. Her throat had been slashed. Their 15-month-old son lay in his crib unharmed.

Police collected DNA evidence from the scene, but when they ran it through their database of convicted felons, there was no match. Patricia's case remained unsolved.

Then, just a few months ago, Mendiola was convicted of "enticing child." After being locked up, his DNA was entered into Colorado's database as part of state law.

Six years after Patricia's brutal murder, authorities in Colorado Springs decided to re-check their DNA evidence against the state's database. By the end of December, they received their results. This time, they had a match with 39-year-old Mendiola, who happened to be a former co-worker of Patricia's husband and brother. Patricia's relatives weren't entirely surprised. They always felt that Patricia's murderer had to be someone they knew.

The timing of the Colorado Springs investigators was perfect, if not miraculous. Mendiola hadn't been in prison for long when they re-evaluated their evidence. And it turned out, they had caught Mendiola just before he was to disappear into society once again. He was slated to leave prison on January 5.

Instead, police charged him with first degree murder and sexual assault just days before his release date. It appears that Mendiola -- who has denied having anything to do with the murder -- will now remain in custody for a bit longer...if not for the rest of his life.

http://www.truecrimereport.com/2010/01/martin_mendiola_charged_with_m.php

I'm glad they re-checked the DNA against the state's database before Mendiola was released back into society. One or more lives were probably saved because of this. I don't understand why somebody who attempted to sexually abuse a child was only given a few months in prison. Our system continues to be too lenient with sex offenders until they end up killing somebody.

This gives Patricia's family some peace, at least they now know who murdered her. And I'm sure other lives have been saved because he hopefully he will be behind bars the rest of of his sorry life. Just a few months for "enticing a child", that's just wrong.