The lawyer for a male death row inmate for the 2004 Collin County woman murder is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to order a stay for the April 23rd execution, citing an ineffective lawyer during his trial.
What we know:
Moises Mendoza’s lawyers on Friday asked the Supreme Court to review the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals’ decision to deny a demand that Mendoza’s lawyers are ineffective.
Specifically, court documents say Mendoza’s former lawyers did not investigate testimony during the sentence from a prison guard who allegedly began a fight with another inmate. Prosecutors used the story to argue that Mendoza is dangerous despite his lockdown and deserves death penalty.
In 2016, prosecutors allegedly attacked by Mendoza, Melvin Johnson said in an affidavit that he was an invader.
Johnson repeated these claims again in his March 2025 affidavit, claiming that Mendoza was only permitted from his phone for recreational purposes only, let go with Mendoza and “the security guard wanted me to jump him.”
“When my door opened in Mendoza, I knew the security guard wanted me to let him jump, and that’s what I did,” Johnson said in a March 2025 affidavit. “He fell to the ground quickly and was hiding to protect himself. He never threw a punch.”
Johnson claimed he was given an extra tray of food to attack Mendoza in prison.
Rachel Tolson’s Murder
Backstory:
On March 17, 2004, Rachel Tolson and her five-month-old daughter returned home after visiting Tolson’s mother around 10pm.
According to court documents, her mother went to Farmersville House in Tolson the next morning, where the backdoor was wide open and a bedroom was found with “chaotic and confused.” The baby was on the bed alone.
After Mendoza was identified as a suspect and arrested, he confessed to killing Tolson.
Mendoza tells the police that she was happy to go with him in his truck and that he suffocated her and let her pass out.
Court documents show that Mendoza drives into the field behind his house and has sex with Tollson before choking her again.
He then drags her onto the field and suffocates her until she “seems dead,” before stabbing her in the throat with a knife, court documents say.
After being interviewed by police, court documents say Mendoza moved Tolson’s body more remotely and burned it. She was found six days later.
Source: Information regarding Mendoza’s Supreme Court request comes from court documents filed on April 18, 2025. The backstory regarding the murder of Rachel Tolson comes from court documents filed in August 2023 with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
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