Left inset: Roidan Mendoza (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department). Right inset: Marillorky Tamayo Cruz (GoFundMe). Background: The Destinations Spring Valley apartment complex at 3925 S. Jones Blvd. in Las Vegas, Nev., where Roidan Mendoza shot and killed his estranged wife Marillorky Tamayo Cruz (KTNV).
A Nevada man has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the brutal murder of his estranged wife, an act committed in the presence of their children after a family court granted her custody and possession of their home.
Authorities report that 40-year-old Roidan Mendoza from Las Vegas, driven by the loss of control over his children and a desire for revenge, fatally shot Marillorky Tamayo Cruz in August 2023. This tragic incident was covered by local outlets KLAS and the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
During Mendoza’s sentencing, following his guilty plea on August 25, 2025, to murder with a deadly weapon, Clark County Deputy District Attorney Corey Hallquist remarked, “He seeks vindication.”
Hallquist described the harrowing experience of Tamayo Cruz, who was at her mother’s apartment with family when Mendoza arrived and committed the heinous act. “There’s no way to truly comprehend that moment,” Hallquist commented, referring to the terror Cruz endured.
The scene was chaotic and terrifying, as Hallquist recounted, “The defendant chose to execute his wife in the presence of his child and stepdaughter.”
On that fateful night, three individuals, including Tamayo Cruz, were shot. Mendoza discharged his weapon 11 times to breach the apartment, ultimately confronting Tamayo Cruz in a bedroom and delivering a fatal shot to her forehead, an act described as execution-style by 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.
“I had to protect what I had left,” the now-17-year-old said in court at Mendoza’s sentencing. “So I grabbed a knife from the ground, and I planned to kill him.”
The daughter added, “I am not a tall person, nor was I strong. I was a 14-year-old girl trying to defend myself and my family.”
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,” according to KLAS.
“I have a lot of pain in my heart,” Marilu Cruz-Tamayo, the victim’s mom, told Mendoza.
The man’s public defender claimed Mendoza “knows he shouldn’t have lost control, but unfortunately, he did,” per the Review-Journal.
“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.
