A probationer who took part in the kidnap-murder of a 65-year-old Moreno Valley man, who was hacked to death with a machete because of unpaid drug debts, was sentenced Monday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
A Riverside jury in October convicted 32-year-old Victor Mendoza of first-degree murder and found true a special circumstance allegation of killing during a kidnapping.
Riverside County Superior Court Judge Samuel Diaz imposed the sentence required by law.
Mendoza’s co-defendant, 24-year-old Dillon Clifford Hardy, is slated to be tried on a murder charge in May. He’s being held without bail at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning.
Larry Minoso Valverde was killed during a confrontation at a property on Sunnymead Boulevard, near Frederick Street. Prosecutors theorized that the victim was behind on payments for narcotics, and the defendants went to where he was staying adjacent to a storage facility in the predawn hours of May 20, 2018, and threatened him.
Prosecutors say Valverde was forced to go with the men to a nearby field, where the confrontation escalated. Investigators alleged that Hardy was wielding the machete, and he swung it wildly, slicing into the victim’s back and neck, resulting in a partial decapitation.
The defendants fled immediately afterward, leaving the victim to die at the scene, according to the prosecution.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Ben Ramirez said deputies initiated an investigation based on a missing persons report filed by Valverde’s family, culminating in the discovery of his body.
Mendoza was immediately detained for questioning and arrested without incident the same day. Hardy was identified as his alleged co-conspirator several days later and was taken into custody without a struggle.
According to court records, Mendoza had a misdemeanor conviction for domestic violence and was serving a three-year sentence of probation at the time of his arrest.
Hardy has priors for attempted grand theft and petty theft, records show.