Background: The Texas Roadhouse restaurant in Amarillo, Texas (Google Maps). Inset (left): Mario Alberto Rodriquez (Potter County Sheriff”s Office). Inset (right): Marisela Mendoza (Bunch-Roberts Funeral Home).
An Oklahoma man who shot his girlfriend outside a Texas Roadhouse restaurant in Texas before fleeing the scene with his two children has learned his fate.
Mario Alberto Rodriquez, 33, pleaded guilty before he could go to trial for the 2022 murder of 23-year-old Marisela Mendoza. As Law&Crime previously reported, Rodriquez and Mendoza, both Oklahoma residents, traveled separately to the Texas Roadhouse in Amarillo on April 30, 2022, and parked in the parking lot. The couple got into a heated argument that escalated into violence when Rodriquez pulled a gun on Mendoza and fired several shots.
Rodriquez then fled to another town with his two little girls, ages 5 and 8 years old, in the car with him.
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Mendoza was found by first responders with life-threatening gunshot wounds and brought to the hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries.
After Rodriquez was identified as the suspect and police realized that he had his two young daughters in the car with him, an Amber Alert was issued, but later canceled after he was apprehended in Hereford, Texas. Law&Crime confirmed with Amarillo police that the children were safe and in the custody of family members.
Local CBS affiliate KFDA reported that after Rodriquez was jailed in Texas, he was briefly transferred to Texas County in Oklahoma in February in connection with a warrant on charges of child neglect and domestic abuse. Those charges were dismissed, and Rodriquez was transferred back to Texas in May.
Rodriquez was indicted for murder by a grand jury in Potter County in July 2022. He was scheduled to go on trial in early 2026, but entered a guilty plea on Monday in exchange for a sentence of 60 years in prison.
Alberto Luperon contributed to this story.
