Left: Roidan Durruthy-Mendoza (LVMPD). Right, inset: Marillorky Tamayo-Cruz (KSVN). Right, background: The apartment complex where Durruthy-Mendoza killed Tamayo-Cruz (KSNV).
A 40-year-old man in Nevada will likely spend the remainder of his days behind bars for killing his ex-wife, fatally shooting the 34-year-old mother of his children just hours after the two appeared in court for a divorce-related hearing that did not go his way.
Roidan Durruthy-Mendoza on Monday formally pleaded guilty to one count of murder with the use of a deadly weapon in the 2023 slaying of Marillorky Tamayo-Cruz. Jury selection in Durruthy-Mendoza”s murder trial had been scheduled to begin on Monday before he reached a deal with prosecutors in the Clark County District Attorney’s Office, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Durruthy-Mendoza had initially been charged with additional counts of attempted murder with a deadly weapon, domestic battery with a deadly weapon, assault, and child abuse, all of which were dismissed in accordance with the plea agreement.
According to the report, Chief Deputy Special Public Defender Charles Cano told the court on Monday that his client’s deal with prosecutors is contingent upon him also entering an Alford plea in a separate case in which he’s charged with sexually assaulting a child under age 14.
“If, for whatever reason, that falls apart, then everything falls apart,” Cano reportedly said in court Monday.
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An Alford plea is functionally equivalent to a guilty plea in that it results in a conviction, but it allows a defendant to maintain their claim of innocence while conceding that the state has sufficient evidence to convict them at trial.
Prosecutors reportedly said they would seek a life sentence without parole when Durruthy-Mendoza appeared for his sentencing hearing, currently scheduled for Oct. 15.
As Law&Crime previously reported, officers with the Las Vegas Metro Police Department at about 2:40 p.m. on Aug. 17, 2023, responded to a call about a shooting taking place at an apartment complex in the 3900 block of South Jones Boulevard near Flamingo Road in Las Vegas. The caller — later identified as the victim’s daughter — told the dispatcher to “hurry up,” adding, “he’s got a gun.” The dispatcher said multiple gunshots could be heard in the background of the call.
“There was a lot of commotion and screaming and [the daughter] sounded as though she walked away from the phone,” police wrote in a probable cause affidavit. “When [she] got back to the phone, she said her mother was dead.”
Upon arriving at the scene, first responders found two additional victims who had suffered gunshot wounds in addition to Tamayo-Cruz, who was pronounced dead at the scene. The other two victims, one who suffered a gunshot wound to the elbow and the other a gunshot wound to the eye, were transported to a local hospital for treatment.
The suspected shooter was quickly identified as Durruthy-Mendoza.
Investigators on the scene recovered 11 cartridge cases from the scene and noted that a security door and front door of the apartment had been “shot off.” Tamayo-Cruz’s body was found in the hallway between the bedroom and bathroom of the apartment. She had suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the forehead. A 9 mm handgun was found next to the body.
At about 3:10 p.m., cameras captured Durruthy-Mendoza parking his car in front of the LVMPD Records and Fingerprint Bureau and getting out wearing a shirt “covered in apparent blood.” He went inside, requested to speak with an officer, then went back outside and sat down on a bench.
When police approached they noted his shirt was “saturated with apparent blood” as they asked Durruthy-Mendoza what had happened.
“I killed my wife,” he allegedly responded. Durruthy-Mendoza also stated that his wife’s daughter had stabbed him in the left shoulder.
In an interview with the daughter, she told police that she was with her mother shortly before the shooting. During that time, her mother told her she had won in court that day against Durruthy-Mendoza and would be getting “the house, the truck, and custody of the children.”
A witness who was in the home during the shooting told police Durruthy-Mendoza shot and kicked down the bedroom door where his ex-wife was hiding and shot her in the head three times. He also said Durruthy-Mendoza said, “I told you not to joke around with me.”
A then-2-year-old child who Durruthy-Mendoza and Tamayo-Cruz shared custody of was also at the apartment during the shooting and was unharmed.
