I’m ready for him to get what he has coming to him and what he’s had coming to him for a long time. >> My heart goes out to his family. I don’t forgive him. I don’t forgive him at all. >> On April 23rd, 2025, a 41-year-old man was strapped to a gurney. His arms are stretched out, needles are in his veins, and a room full of people are watching through a glass window, waiting.

Some of them are crying. Some of them are stone-faced. All of them have been waiting for this moment for over 20 years. [music] In just minutes, the state of Texas will carry out its third execution of the year. But before the drugs begin to flow, this man opens his mouth. And what he says to the family of the woman he killed is something no one in that room will ever forget.

 This is the story of Moises Sandoval Mendoza, a 20-year-old mother gone, a ransacked bedroom, a 5-month-old baby left alone on a mattress crying with no idea where her mother was. A body found burned and buried miles from home. And here is the part that will stay with you. Mendoza had already confessed to killing her. So when he stood [music] trial, no one was debating whether he did it.

 The only question on that courtroom floor was something far more disturbing. [music] And the answer would send him to death row for over two decades. Welcome back to Red Mark Files. If you are new here, hit that subscribe button and turn on your notifications, because this story is one you will want to watch all the way to the end.

 Her name was Rochelle O’Neil Tollison. She was born on January 20th, 1984, and she grew up right there in Texas. People who knew her described her as warm, full of life, and deeply connected to her family. She was the kind of person who stayed close to home and close to the people she loved. By March of 2004, Rochelle was 20 years old.

 She was living on her own in Farmersville, Texas, a small, quiet town outside of Dallas, and she was raising a 5-month-old baby girl named Avery. Life was not easy. She was going through a divorce from her estranged husband, Andrew, and it was Rachelle who had filed the papers herself. She was not running from her life.

 She was trying to rebuild it on her own terms. One of the people she had known since her school days was a young man named Moises Sandoval Mendoza. They had grown up in the same area of northern Texas and attended the same high school. He was not a stranger. He was a familiar face. On the evening of March 17th, 2004, Rachelle visited her mother, something she did regularly.

 She returned home to Farmersville around 10:00 that night with baby Avery. That same evening, she had also attended a small bonfire gathering with roughly 15 people. Mendoza was there, too. At that gathering, Mendoza made his interest in Rachelle clear. She told friends she was not interested in him. She was not looking for anything like that.

 She had a baby to raise and a new chapter to start. Her mother checked in on her almost every day. That was just the kind of relationship they had, and it was that same routine. Her mother stopped by the next morning that would blow this case wide open. When investigators later arrived at the home, they found Rachelle’s divorce papers lying face down on the kitchen floor.

 Pressed into them was a large muddy boot print. That boot print would become one of the most critical pieces of evidence in the entire case, but it would take investigators days to understand exactly why. Now, let’s talk about the man on the other side of this story. Moises Sandoval Mendoza was born on January 26th, 1984, just 6 days after Rachelle, in Mexico.

 He grew up in northern Texas in the same community, attending the same school as Rachelle. On the surface, he looked like someone going places. In his early years, he was described as hard working. He earned scholarships. After graduation, he completed roughly 9 months of training in heating and air conditioning.

 To the outside world, he looked like a young man building a future, but behind that image, something very different was taking shape. Neighbors remembered a deeply disturbing incident where Mendoza violently pinned down his own mother and sister right in their front yard in plain sight. Not a verbal argument, physical force against the women in his own home.

 Court records revealed this was not a one-time incident. Mendoza had a documented history of physically assaulting both his mother and his sister. Court records also revealed that he had sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl. These were not rumors. These were facts backed by evidence. Mendoza had known Rochelle since their school days.

 But after she separated from her husband Andrew, something shifted in him. He made his romantic interest in her known to people around him, to people around her. He was not subtle about it. Rochelle was equally clear. She told friends directly she was not interested in Mendoza, not even a little. She had a baby to take care of and a divorce to finalize.

Mendoza was not part of any plan she had for her life. But he kept showing up. On the evening of March 17th, 2004, both Rochelle and Mendoza were at the same bonfire gathering. Roughly 15 people were there. It was casual. It was social. And Mendoza was the one who brought the firewood that night, mesquite wood pulled from a local source.

 Nobody thought much of it at the time. No formal complaint had ever been filed against Mendoza regarding Rochelle. No restraining order, no police report. His interest in her had been noticed by friends but never escalated to anyone who could have intervened. And Mendoza had more access than most people realized. He had been to her house before.

 He knew where she lived. He knew she was alone, just her and a 5-month-old baby. He knew her routines. And with his bail conditions placing zero restrictions on his movement, nothing was stopping him. That mesquite wood he brought to the bonfire that night, it would later become the most groundbreaking piece of forensic evidence in the entire case.

 A type of evidence that had never been used in forensic science before. And it would seal his fate completely. But by the time the sun went down on March 17th, 2004, it was already too late for Rochelle. Here is something that makes this case even more disturbing. Mendoza did not work with anyone.

 There were no accomplices, no hired help, no co-conspirators. He planned this alone and carried it out alone. And the details left behind point clearly to a man who thought ahead. Per court records, when it came time to dispose of Rochelle’s body, Mendoza did not pick a random location in a panic. He chose his cousin’s land in rural Collin County, a remote area he already knew how to access.

 He had an accelerant ready. He knew exactly what he was going to do and where he was going to do it. Strangulation was his method. No weapon was bought or sourced. This was deeply physical and deeply personal. And per court records, before he moved Rochelle’s body from the field where he had killed her, he wrapped her in a tarp.

 That is not the behavior of someone acting in the heat of the moment. That is someone thinking steps ahead. Even the firewood connects back to planning. The same mesquite wood he brought to the bonfire that night was later identified at the disposal site. He had access to it. He used it. Before we go any further, if this story has you locked in, hit that subscribe button right now and drop a comment below.

 Tell me what detail has disturbed you the most so far, and stay with me, because what comes next is the part that is impossible to believe. After Rochelle Tolleson was dead, after her body was burned and buried miles from home, Moises Sandoval Mendoza went back to his life. No visible distress, no breakdown, no signs that anything had happened.

 To the people around him, he appeared completely normal. But he made mistakes, critical ones. The first was his mouth. Per court records, Mendoza told a friend that he had killed Rochelle Tolleson. That conversation, casual as it may have seemed to him, became a direct trigger for his arrest.

 The second mistake was his clothing. Mendoza never got rid of what he wore that night. When investigators searched his bedroom, they found a pair of boots caked in soot and carrying the heavy smell of gasoline. Right there, in his room. He had not thrown them away. He had not cleaned them. He had simply left them. They also found a pair of jeans, buried under ash and grime, the fabric held tiny flecks of dried blood.

 Forensic testing confirmed it. The blood belonged to Rochelle Tollison. Then came the wood. Investigators tested eight logs collected from the disposal site, and three logs from the bonfire Rochelle had attended on March 17th. Every single one carried the exact same chemical signature, the same combination of metals, the same unusual concentration of titanium.

 They all came from the same source. This was not just a lead. This was history. For the first time in forensic science, burned wood had been successfully used as hard physical evidence in a criminal case. Investigators initially focused on Andrew, Rochelle’s estranged husband. The divorce had been messy, but his alibi held.

 Witnesses confirmed he had been at the party, drinking heavily, and had been driven home. He never left. Then witnesses revealed something that changed everything. Andrew did not bring the firewood to that bonfire. Moises Mendoza did. When Rochelle was reported missing on the morning of March 18th, 2004, the community of Farmersville responded immediately.

 Dozens of volunteers joined law enforcement on foot. Others came on ATVs. Some came on horseback. They searched fields, roads, and surrounding areas for five straight days. Every lead was followed. Every corner was checked. They found nothing. It was not a detective or a trained search team that found Rochelle.

 It was a civilian, a man hiking through woods roughly 10 miles outside of Farmersville, who came across what looked like the remains of a fire. He got closer, and what he found stopped him cold. On March 23rd, 2004, Rochelle O’Neal Tollison’s remains were recovered and identified through her dental records.

 Her body had been burned beyond recognition. No fingerprints. No recoverable DNA from the remains themselves. Investigators were working with almost nothing from the scene. Attention initially turned to Andrew, Rochelle’s estranged husband. The divorce had been contentious, and she had been the one to file. But multiple witnesses placed Andrew firmly at the bonfire that evening, drinking heavily, needing a ride home, and never leaving his house afterward.

 His alibi was solid. Investigators eventually cleared him. Then came the wood forensics. When the chemical analysis revealed that the logs from the burn site matched the logs from the bonfire, same metals, same titanium concentration, same source, investigators had a new question. Who brought that wood to the bonfire? Multiple witnesses came forward with the same answer. It was not Andrew.

 It was Moises Mendoza. Investigators brought Mendoza in for questioning. He did not deny knowing Rochelle. He admitted he had picked her up that night, but he claimed she left with him willingly, that they went out together, leaving baby Avery alone in the house. Per court records, investigators found that account impossible to accept.

 No mother leaves her 5-month-old infant alone in a ransacked house in the middle of the night. When they questioned him a second time, his story shifted. Per court records, Mendoza admitted that while they were in his truck, he choked Rochelle until she lost consciousness. And from there, the confession only got darker.

 The pieces were coming together fast. Per court records, Mendoza had told a friend that he killed Rochelle Tollison. That friend talked, and that conversation, combined with everything investigators were now pulling together, became the central breakthrough in the entire case. Start with the boots. The pair found in Mendoza’s bedroom, caked in soot, smelling of gasoline, was sent for forensic analysis.

 The tread pattern and the wear marks along the heel were compared to the muddy boot print pressed into Rochelle’s divorce papers on her kitchen floor. It was a perfect match. Then the jeans. The tiny flex of dried blood embedded in the fabric were sent for DNA testing. The results came back without any room for doubt.

 The blood belonged to Rochelle Tollison. Then the wood. Eight logs collected from the disposal site and three from the bonfire were tested side by side. Every single one carried the same rare chemical composition, the same combination of metals, the same unusual level of titanium. The forensic link was direct and undeniable.

 The disposal site connected back to the bonfire, and the bonfire connected back to Mendoza. As investigators dug further into his background, more came to the surface. Court records showed he had been previously arrested for two aggravated robberies and was out on bail at the time of the murder. Court records also revealed a prior sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl and a documented pattern of physical violence against female members of his own family.

 This was not a man with a clean past. This was a pattern. On March 24th, 2004, one day after Rochelle’s remains were recovered, Moises Sandoval Mendoza was arrested and charged with capital murder. Even after his arrest, Mendoza held onto parts of his original account. He continued to claim that Rochelle had left with him willingly.

 He admitted to killing her, but contested the sexual assault. The evidence told a different story entirely. Per court records, his confession, the DNA, the boot match, the wood forensics, and the witness testimony combined to form one of the most thoroughly documented capital murder cases in Collin County history. In 2005, Moises Sandoval Mendoza stood trial in Collin County, Texas.

 The charge was capital murder in the course of attempted burglary, kidnapping, and aggravated sexual assault. But here is what made this trial different from most. Mendoza had already confessed to killing Rochelle Tallison. Nobody in that courtroom was debating whether he did it. The only question the jury had to answer was whether he would live or die for it.

 The prosecution did not hold back. Then first assistant district attorney Greg Davis stood before that jury and described Mendoza as one of the most violent sadistic men he had ever encountered in his entire career as a prosecutor. Those words landed hard. The defense brought in clinical psychologist Mark Viggen, who testified that Mendoza was emotionally immature, lacked psychological development, took pleasure in being deceptive, and reacted with anger whenever he faced criticism.

 The defense was pushing for mitigating factors, anything that might give the jury a reason to spare him. The jury was not moved. Under Texas law, they had to answer two specific questions. First, was Mendoza a future danger to society? The jury answered yes. Second, were there any mitigating reasons to spare his life? The jury answered no.

 On June 29th, 2005, Mendoza was sentenced to death. Then came the appeals. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected his appeal in November 2008 and dismissed another in May 2009. The US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas rejected him in September 2012. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals turned him down in March 2015.

 The US District Court rejected him again in April 2019. The Fifth Circuit denied him again in August 2023. On October 7th, 2024, the US Supreme Court denied his final appeal. On December 11th, 2024, his death warrant was signed. Execution date, April 23rd, 2025. Moises Sandoval Mendoza spent over 20 years on death row. 20 years of appeals.

20 years of delays. 20 years while Rochelle’s family waited for a conclusion that kept getting pushed further away. After his death warrant was signed on December 11th, 2024, Mendoza did not stop fighting. He filed additional appeals in the weeks that followed. On April 15th, 2025, just 8 days before his scheduled execution, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected his final state-level appeal.

 He then turned to the highest court in the country. On April 18th, 2025, Mendoza filed a final appeal to the US Supreme Court. On the morning of April 23rd, 2025, the very day of his execution, the Supreme Court denied it. He also submitted a clemency plea to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, asking for his death sentence to be commuted to life in prison.

 That too was denied. On April 21st, 2025, every door had closed. There was no special last meal. Texas abolished that practice in 2011 after two inmates ordered large expensive meals and then refused to eat them. Mendoza received the same standard meal given to every other inmate that day. On April 23rd, 2025, at the Huntsville unit in Texas, 41-year-old Moises Sandoval Mendoza was strapped to a gurney.

 His spiritual advisor stood over him and prayed for approximately two minutes. Then Mendoza spoke. He turned toward the window where Rochelle’s family sat watching. Her parents, her two brothers, her cousin, and her uncle. He addressed each of them by name. He said, “I am sorry for having robbed you of Rochelle’s life. I know nothing I could ever say or do would ever make up for that.

 I want you to know I am sincere. I apologize.” He then spoke directly to Avery, Rochelle’s daughter, who was not present. He said he had robbed her of her mother and he was deeply sorry for that. Then he turned to a second window. His wife, his sister, and two friends were watching. He spoke to them in Spanish. “I love you. I am with you.

 I am well and at peace. You know that I am well and everything is love.” At 6:21 in the evening, the drugs were administered. Mendoza let out two loud gasps. Then came slow rhythmic sounds. Then silence. At 6:40 in the evening, he was pronounced dead, 19 minutes after the injection began. He was the third person executed in Texas in 2025, the 13th in the United States that year.

 Rochelle’s father, Mark O’Neal, said he did not forgive Mendoza, but he acknowledged that Mendoza’s mother and sisters were also losing someone, a son and a brother. Even in his grief, he held space for that. But he was clear. Mendoza showed zero mercy to his daughter when she begged for her life. Yet he spent over 20 years begging for his own.

 Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis said the murder devastated her family and shocked our community and that justice had finally been served in Rochelle’s honor. And baby Avery, found alone and crying on that mattress on March 18th, 2004, grew up without her mother. Mendoza had over 20 years to plead for his life.

 Rochelle had only moments. Which part of this story hit you the hardest? Was it baby Avery, the forensic wood evidence, or Mendoza’s final words? Drop your answer in the comments below. If you are new here, subscribe and turn on notifications. The next case is coming, and it is one you will not want to miss.