Left inset: Rene Mendez. Right inset: Sylvia Ramos, left and Brianna Ramos. Background: Laredo police investigate after Mendez murdered his girlfriend and her daughter (KGNS).
A Texas man is headed to prison forever after he brutally murdered his girlfriend and her daughter before going on a bender and acting like nothing happened.
Rene Mendez was sentenced to life in prison for the murders of his 40-year-old girlfriend Sylvia Ramos and her 19-year-old daughter Brianna Ramos, according to the Webb County District Attorney”s Office. A jury on Friday convicted Mendez on two counts of first-degree murder and a judge sentenced him to life behind bars without the possibility of parole. The elder Ramos’ brother flagged down a Laredo police officer on March 6, 2023, and began screaming “Come here! Hurry! Run! My sister was killed!”
Cops entered the apartment at 2601 Lomas Del Sur Blvd. and found the victims dead inside. The brother said his sister had been dating Mendez. Officers found him later that day after being called to a nearby Motel 6 for a drug overdose. Mendez survived and was arrested.
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Investigators determined Mendez stabbed his girlfriend 55 times, mostly in the neck, and choked her daughter to death. According to a courtroom report from the Laredo Morning Times, prosecutors said Mendez first murdered the younger Ramos by strangling her to death in her bedroom.
He then left the apartment to hang out with a friend. The friend reportedly testified Ramos acted normal as if nothing ever happened. He returned to the apartment hours later and waited for his girlfriend to come home. When she entered the apartment, Mendez took out a pocket knife and went for the jugular.
“He said he didn’t mean to do it, but he didn’t stop, and three minutes later he left the apartment, leaving Sylvia on the floor in her own blood while her daughter lay dead in her bedroom,” Assistant District Attorney Kassandra de Hoyos reportedly said during closing arguments.
Mendez stole his girlfriend’s bank card, withdrew $500 from her account and bought $100 worth of cocaine. Prosecutors said he proceeded to ingest 130 pills, cocaine and alcohol in a suicide attempt.
“Then he thought he was over. He didn’t expect to wake up, he didn’t expect someone to rescue him and be sitting in front of this jury,” de Hoyos reportedly said. “Don’t get it twisted, addiction was his motive, but addiction didn’t cause him to suffocate Brianna, addiction didn’t cause him to kill Sylvia with 55 stab wounds. It was that man over there.”
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