Background: Darron McCree addresses his son”s killer behind a glass wall (WITI). Left inset: Erik Mendoza (WDJT). Right inset: Prince McCree (Milwaukee Police Department).
A Wisconsin teenager, who was only 15 when he brutally murdered a young boy using a golf club and a birdbath, now faces a lifetime behind bars.
Erik Mendoza, now 18, received a life sentence for the killing of 5-year-old Prince McCree. The child’s body was discovered on October 26, 2023, wrapped in trash bags and discarded in a dumpster. Earlier this year, Mendoza admitted to first-degree intentional homicide, concealing a corpse, and several counts of reckless endangerment. He was apprehended alongside David Pietura Jr., aged 29.
Mendoza will have a chance for parole after serving 50 years of his sentence.
In June 2024, Pietura admitted guilt to first-degree intentional homicide as an accomplice and was sentenced to life imprisonment without any possibility of parole, as reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
According to courtroom reports from local news stations WISN and WITI, Prince’s father, Darron McCree, addressed his son’s murderer during the sentencing. Due to previous disruptions, he spoke from behind a glass partition.
“What I want to say is, I wish this guy would die and burn, no mercy. I wish I could do it with my hands. When he killed my baby, he killed me,” he expressed, filled with grief and anger.
He added: “If any opportunity arise, I will strangle this guy.”
Prosecutors said Mendoza’s actions do not “get more serious, more egregious than this.” Mendoza’s attorney said his client “was responsible legally” but that he is a “very troubled, seriously mental ill person.”
Prince’s mother Jordan Barger spoke with WISN after the hearing.
“I’m glad justice got served for my baby. That’s all that matters to me, and I just hope basically he gets what he deserves in there because my 5-year-old didn’t deserve that,” she said.
As Law&Crime previously reported, a probable cause arrest affidavit said Mendoza and Pietura lived in the same house where Prince and his mother lived. On Oct. 25, 2023, the day he went missing, Prince’s mother kept him home from school because he woke up with a sore throat.
Late that morning, Prince ventured down to the home’s basement to play video games. His mother went back to sleep, leaving Prince under the supervision of Pietura, who lived in the basement. After she went food shopping, Prince’s mother went to the basement to find her son. All the lights were turned off and no one was there. When she encountered Pietura, he told her he had not seen Prince.
Prince’s mother called the police, who came to look around the property. Detectives found blood on the basement floor and asked Pietura about it. Pietura claimed that he and Mendoza were “roughhousing,” and Mendoza ended up with a bloody nose.
As detectives moved throughout the property, they found blood in more locations. When they questioned Pietura, he provided a story that was quickly debunked by his own cellphone records. Detectives also noticed “a large amount of blood” on Pietura’s right leg. Pietura was arrested for obstruction while the search for Prince continued.
On Oct. 26, 2023, a K-9 unit detected human decomposition on the property. Using Bluestar — described in the probable cause affidavit as “a reagent used to reveal blood stains that have been washed out, wiped away, or are invisible to the naked eye” — detectives found more blood throughout the basement, and they questioned Pietura again. Pietura told detectives he witnessed Mendoza beating Prince with a golf club, and that they would find the golf club next to a furnace. Investigators located the golf club. Pietura also told police that he saw Mendoza “choking and beating” Prince.
Prince’s body was recovered later the same morning, “blood soaked, bound, and gagged.” He was wrapped in duct tape and several white garbage bags. Police said “it was clear” that the boy had been dead for “some time.”
Police recovered surveillance video from the neighborhood that caught Pietura and Mendoza disposing of Prince’s body on the afternoon of Oct. 25, 2023.
After finding Prince’s body, police arrested Mendoza on the afternoon of Oct. 26, 2023. Detectives confronted Mendoza with the video and the condition of Prince’s body, and he eventually admitted, “I strangled him.” He also admitted to striking the boy with the golf club, saying he knew he was still alive because he was “foaming from the mouth and crying.”
Mendoza and Pietura then took the boy outside, where Mendoza said he stomped on Prince’s head about 10 times. He “punched and kicked” the boy until he was “lifeless,” then both he and Pietura prepared to dispose of the 5-year-old. Pietura later admitted that he also took part in beating Prince in an attempt to keep him quiet. When the boy continued to whimper, Pietura said he dropped a 30-pound barbell on the boy’s head. Prince was silent for a while, but started to whimper again after he was wrapped up in garbage bags. The two convicted killers then “took turns” hitting the boy in the head with the golf club while he was bound and gagged inside the garbage bags.
Pietura then found “a concrete pedestal for a birdbath” and dropped it on Prince’s head two times. The boy never made another sound.
During his interview, Mendoza told police that he was responsible for three nonfatal stabbings that took place in the neighborhood. Mendoza claimed that he was “bored,” and “wanted to stab someone badly.” The three attacks were random, including one victim who was “just sitting there on his phone,” according to Mendoza.
Mendoza was set to be tried as an adult. His defense attorney tried during the past two years to have the case dismissed and have Mendoza tried as a juvenile. When that failed, he attempted to have his client claim insanity. Mendoza was ruled competent to stand trial.
