Guilty Plea in Oxnard Slaying

In the midst of jury selection for his retrial, an El Rio gang member pleaded guilty Wednesday to voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of a fellow gang member in Oxnard three years ago.

As part of the plea, Rudy Mendoza, 27, will be sentenced to 22 years in prison for the May 28, 2001, death of Anthony Rodriguez. Mendoza, who had a long-running feud with the victim, shot Rodriguez, 30, on the belief he had disrespected Mendoza’s family.

A murder charge and weapon and gang allegations filed against Mendoza will be dropped when he is sentenced next month.

Late last year, a mistrial was declared in Mendoza’s first trial when, after five days of deliberations, jurors told Ventura County Superior Court Judge Kevin McGee that they were deadlocked 6 to 5 with one juror abstaining.

In the retrial, prosecutor Richard Simon said he had planned to call two witnesses who would identify Mendoza as the shooter. Additionally, he had new evidence that Mendoza talked about details of the crime with another gang member.

The plea agreement is a rarity because the district attorney’s office has an unwritten policy against negotiating deals in serious felony cases, Simon said. Prosecutors, though, considered the possibilities of a second mistrial and a judge’s discretion to bar a third trial.

After the plea was announced, Mendoza was returned to his jail cell and his attorney immediately left the courtroom without commenting.

According to Simon, Deputy Public Defender Todd Howeth orchestrated the plea offer and contacted prosecutors.

In the first trial, Howeth argued his client had been framed by his gang brethren. According to testimony in the first trial, Rodriguez was shot in his car outside a tire store. Several members of the same El Rio gang were nearby, and Howeth maintained it was one of them, not Mendoza, who shot Rodriguez.

Mendoza, Simon said, will be sentenced to 11 years for the manslaughter charge. That term will be doubled because of an unrelated burglary conviction.