Illegal alien pleads guilty to attempted malicious wounding, firearm charges


Wednesday, January 14, 2009

By KEN BRADLEY - Staff Writer

A man who iss in the U.S. illegally will serve two years and four months in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to attempted malicious wounding and three firearms charges.


Victor Mendoza, 39, was set to be tried by a jury, but after a jury of four men and eight women was seated, Mendoza agreed to plead guilty to the charges through an agreement with the Franklin County Commonwealth's Attorney's office.

The plea agreement called for the original charge of attempted murder to be amended to attempted malicious wounding with the firearm charges to remain intact.

In addition to the sentence of two years and four months in prison, Circuit Court Judge W.N. Alexander II ordered Mendoza to be on good behavior for 20 years and be placed on probation after his sentence is served.

The judge told Mendoza that if he is deported after he serves the prison sentence and returns illegally to this country, that he would be in violation of his good behavior order and he would serve the full eight years in prison and 24 months in jail that was handed down before part of the sentence was suspended.

The firearms charges against Mendoza were in connection with an incident in Brushy Hill Mobile Home Park in Glade Hill on Aug. 9, 2007.

The attempted murder charge was in connection with an incident on March 25, 2008, while Mendoza was in the Franklin County Jail on the firearms charges.

In summarizing the evidence against Mendoza, prosecutor Patrick Nix said Mendoza was at the home of a woman who lived in the park on Aug. 9, when the woman asked him to leave because he was drinking.

Mendoza left the mobile home, but about an hour later, while the woman was walking across the grounds of the park, she saw Mendoza and heard a gunshot, Nix said.

The woman ran to a neighbor's home to call the police, Nix said.

Two deputies with the Franklin County Sheriff's Department responded to the call, Nix said. Deputies found Mendoza inside another mobile home in the park.

During a search of the mobile home where Mendoza was found, police located a .22 caliber piston in one of the rooms, Nix said.

Mendoza admitted to deputies that he fired the pistol in the mobile home park, Nix said.

The charge of attempted murder against Mendoza resulted from an incident inside Franklin County Jail when Mendoza grabbed the electrical cord of a fan and put it around another's inmate's neck and began pulling the cord on March 25, Nix said.

The inmate was playing Solitaire by himself when the attack by Mendoza occurred, Nix added..

Nix said he believed the jury could have found Mendoza guilty of attempted murder had the case been heard by the jury.


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