A Nevada man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for murdering his estranged wife in front of their kids following a family court hearing in which she was awarded custody and the family home.
According to prosecutors, Roidan Mendoza, 40, of Las Vegas, was “upset that he’s losing control” of his children and wanted to “get revenge” on his former spouse, Marillorky Tamayo Cruz, by shooting her dead in August 2023.
“He wants to be vindicated,” Clark County Deputy District Attorney Corey Hallquist said in court Wednesday at Mendoza’s sentencing after he pleaded guilty on Aug. 25, 2025, to murder with use of a deadly weapon.
Three people, including Tamayo Cruz, were shot that evening. Mendoza fired 11 times into the apartment’s locks and broke into the home to find Tamayo Cruz in a bedroom, where he blasted her with “an execution-style shot to the forehead,” according to Hallquist.
The family court hearing in which Mendoza lost custody was earlier that same day. The couple was in the process of getting a divorce and Mendoza was supposed to be meeting up with Tamayo Cruz to switch cars, according to reports.
Tamayo Cruz’ daughter, who was 14 years old at the time, tried to stop Mendoza by stabbing him in the back with a knife. He took the blade away from her afterward and then tried slashing her back, but the teen managed to block the attack with her hands, leaving her with lacerations.
Mendoza apologized to Tamayo Cruz’ family in court on Wednesday, telling them through an interpreter that he didn’t go to her mother’s home “with the intention to harm anyone.”
The man’s public defender claimed Mendoza “knows he shouldn’t have lost control, but unfortunately, he did.”
“He didn’t want this to happen, he never wished it did, but being upset and angry and injured, he entered into this red zone of emotions,” the lawyer said.
Mendoza was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and two consecutive terms of 8 to 20 years in prison on the deadly weapon enhancements.
