Jury selection began Monday for the trial of a man accused of stabbing his ex-girlfriend repeatedly outside her Coachella home after she broke up with him.
Carlos Antonio Mendoza, 41, of Coachella, is charged with first-degree murder in the 2016 killing of 31-year-old Cecilia Silva and the special circumstances allegation of lying in wait, which made him eligible for the death penalty.
Prosecutors previously decided not to pursue the death penalty for Mendoza, who would face a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole if convicted.
Riverside County Superior Court Judge Otis Sterling screened several panels of prospective jurors at the Larson Justice Center in Indio in preparation for what’s expected to be a 15-day trial. Jury selection will continue Tuesday morning.
Sheriff’s homicide investigator Daniel Moody testified at Mendoza’s preliminary hearing in March 2017 that Silva was stabbed “at least 15 times” and was found lying face-down in a pool of blood in the driveway of her home in the 52700 block of Calle Empalme at 6:25 a.m. on March 20, 2016.
A friend of the victim told investigators that Silva and Mendoza had been dating, but Silva said Mendoza was “suffocating her.”
Following Silva’s death, Mendoza checked himself into Canyon Ridge Hospital in Chino.
District attorney’s investigator Sean Freeman testified at the preliminary hearing that, after Silva’s DNA was found on some of the defendant’s clothes at the hospital and he failed multiple psychological tests aimed at measuring his potential mental impairment, Mendoza admitted to the killing.
Freeman testified that Mendoza said he waited for Silva to return home from work, then donned all-dark clothing, including a mask patterned after the comic book character “Bane,” and stabbed Silva with a “large bowie knife.”
According to Freeman, the defendant admitted he threw the knife into a La Quinta canal, where it was later recovered by investigators.
Mendoza’s attorney previously called into question his client’s competency, causing Judge Dean Benjamini to order him to undergo a mental evaluation by a psychologist to determine if Mendoza could assist in his own defense.
Mendoza, who has no documented felony convictions in Riverside County, remains jailed without bail and at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning.