A Fresno, California woman will spend the rest of her life in prison after a Kings County jury convicted her of torturing and murdering a Vietnam War veteran.
42-year-old Stacie Mendoza was found guilty of first-degree murder with special circumstances last Friday.
Prosecutors said she befriended 74-year-old Kenneth Coyle while working as a waitress at a local restaurant.
They say 70-year-old Kenneth Coyle met Stacie Mendoza at a Hanford restaurant, where she was a waitress.
They became friends, but in recent weeks, Mendoza began to gain access to his personal financial information.
“And we think she manipulated that relationship to gain his trust and defraud him of money,” Hanford Police Captain Karl Anderson said.
In an attempt to get even more personal information from him, Hanford Police believe Stacie and her husband Jose Mendoza went to Coyle’s house on April 5th or 6th, where they restrained, beat, and ultimately killed him.
Police believe he died of blunt force trauma and suffocation. An autopsy is scheduled for later this week.
On April 7th or 8th, police say the Mendozas, their three children with them, drove a U-Haul to rural Madera County, where they burned Coyle’s body.
“We know the children were taken to when the body was burned and watched the body burn,” Anderson said.
The next week, police say the Mendoza’s went back to Coyle’s home to steal more of his things, but they were confronted by property management, who called the police.
They were suspicious of the Mendoza’s claim that Coyle had been hurt and was recovering at a care home in Northern California.
Police tracked Coyle’s cell phone to the suspects’ Fresno home, and investigators arrested them at a Denny’s near Los Angeles International Airport.
Jose had Coyle’s credit card, and a ticket to El Salvador, where he’s from.
Stacie Mendoza and her husband, Jose Mendoza, were arrested in April of 2018.
Stacie Mendoza is not eligible for parole. She will be sentenced on July 1.
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