Opening statements got underway Thursday in 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 slaying of 31-year-old Cecilia Silva, who was found dead on March 20, 2016, stabbed more than 30 times next to her running car in the driveway.
Prosecutors previously decided not to pursue the death penalty for Mendoza, who faces a special-circumstance allegation of lying in wait. He could face a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole if convicted.
Sheriff’s homicide investigator Daniel Moody testified at Mendoza’s preliminary hearing in March 2017 that Silva 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.
A friend of the victim told investigators that the two had been dating, but Silva said Mendoza was “suffocating her.”
After her death, Mendoza attempted to check himself into an Indio mental health clinic, “but was sent away because it was at capacity,” according to court documents.
A friend then took him to another facility for treatment.
Investigator Sean Freeman testified at the preliminary hearing that after Silva’s DNA was found on Mendoza’s clothes at the hospital, he admitted to the killing.
According to prosecutors, Mendoza told investigators that during the murder, it was as if he was “watching an animal” kill Silva, and that he was “powerless to stop it.”
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 her 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, prompting 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 has no documented felony convictions in Riverside County and remains jailed without bail at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning.
Prosecution testimony is scheduled to resume Monday.