Stepfather Held in Deaths of 3 Youngsters

A Nevada man held his 13-year-old stepdaughter in a headlock, shot her at point-blank range Thursday in full view of sheriff’s deputies who had just pulled up, and then fired into a parked car, killing another stepdaughter and a niece, authorities said.

The man, identified as Martin Mendoza-Garcia, 33, of Carson City, was wounded in the shoulder in an exchange of gunfire with the two deputies, the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department said. He was captured outside a house in this sparsely populated desert community, about 40 miles east of San Bernardino.

The three slain children were identified as stepdaughter Sandra Resendiz, stepson Erik Resendiz, 11, and niece Wendy Cervantes, 11. Also wounded was a 7-year-old boy, the gunman’s biological son, who was grazed by a bullet and treated and released at Desert Hospital in Palms Springs.

Mendoza-Garcia’s wife had left him a few weeks ago, and she and the children had moved from Carson City, according to law enforcement officials there.

Mendoza-Garcia and his nephew, Jose Soria Delgado, “traveled to the house from Carson City in order to confront his wife for leaving him,” a sheriff’s spokesman said. “When Mendoza-Garcia began making threats at the residence, Delgado drove away, leaving Mendoza-Garcia at the residence. [Delgado] was subsequently stopped by sheriff’s officers in Apple Valley and taken into custody.”

Deputy Cheryl Huff said that shortly after 8 a.m. Thursday, “we received a 911 call from the house of shots being fired, and when the deputies rolled up, the suspect was shooting into the vehicle. He had his arms around the fourth child, and he shot the child . . . right there in front of the deputies.”

Mendoza-Garcia was taken to Desert Hospital and treated for a bullet wound. He was transferred to the San Bernardino County Hospital’s jail ward and booked on murder charges.

Huff said Mendoza-Garcia’s estranged wife, Rosio Cervantes, was at the house at the time of the shooting.

“Someone at the house called 911 and reported an incident of domestic violence at the house but suddenly hung up,” said Deputy Henry Calderilla. “The dispatcher called back and was told someone had a gun. Officers were dispatched to the scene.”

Neighbors said that Mendoza-Garcia’s estranged wife and the children were staying at her brother’s house in Landers, a neat, fenced single-story home on a dirt road with a basketball hoop over the garage.

“They seemed like good people,” said Duane Carpenter, 61, a neighbor. “They had picnics and barbecues in their backyard and were always playing volleyball and baseball. . . . Me and my wife were lying in bed this morning and talking about how that family has grown in the last three weeks. . . . Then we heard five or six shots in a row--bang, bang, bang, bang. Then there was a little delay. And then two more shots.”

On Thursday night, about a dozen relatives of the slain children gathered in front of the house. It was a frigid night with a stiff desert wind blowing and the relatives, wrapped in blankets, cried, comforted one another and watched the homicide detectives comb the frontyard for evidence.

Mendoza-Garcia had been working in construction in the Carson City area and he and his family had lived there about a year, according to a Sheriff’s Department spokesman in Carson City.

Mendoza-Garcia has a brother who is cooperating with authorities, the spokesman said. Hector Mendoza-Garcia was described by Carson City authorities as distraught and stunned that his brother could be capable of such violence.

“He’s disturbed, upset and shocked about what happened,” the spokesman said of the brother.

Carson City authorities said Sandra Resendiz reported that her stepfather came home drunk Jan. 7, hit her with a belt, leaving her leg red and bruised, and shoved her to the ground.

Mendoza-Garcia was arrested Jan. 7 on a misdemeanor domestic battery charge after hitting the 13-year-old “a number of times,” the spokesman said said.

“She wasn’t hospitalized. It wasn’t considered that serious,” he said.

Justice Court spokesman Catarino Escobar confirmed that Mendoza-Garcia was released on $2,600 bail the day of his arrest. He pleaded guilty to the charge Jan. 22 and was sentenced to 30 days in jail, with the sentence suspended, providing there were no complaints for alcohol or violence for a year.

Troy Graunke, the deputy who arrested Mendoza-Garcia, reported to the court that he went to Mendoza-Garcia’s apartment at 3:20 a.m. on Jan. 7 after getting a 911 hang-up call from the home and Sandra told him about the abuse.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.