After accepting a plea agreement, a man accused of murdering two women and setting fire to the crime scene will avoid the death penalty.
Rosendo Jesus Montoya, 28, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Monday, according to KSAT, after pleading guilty to two capital murder charges.
According to the article, he admitted to killing Mary Heinz, 33, and her roommate, Laura West, 43. The latter was his coworker at McDonald’s, and they had a brief romantic relationship. Sheriff David Soward told KSAT that Montoya had become “obsessed” with her and was pursuing her. It was not immediately obvious what drove Montoya to snap, but West’s body was discovered in her home on the 100 block of Peach Tree in Leming, a small census-designated town about 30 miles south of San Antonio.
Investigators looking into surveillance footage in the area allegedly saw Montoya throwing two plastic bags into dumpsters near a fast food restaurant he worked at in Pleasanton, which forms a triangle with Leming and Poteet, his hometown, all of which are just south of San Antonio.
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After recovering the garbage bags, the investigator allegedly discovered fragmentary human parts. Montoya was quickly caught and confessed to the crimes, leading detectives to the location of Heinz’s body, which was near a country road just five miles north of Poteet.
West had been shot in the head and left inside her burning house. According to reports, Heinz died from a gunshot wound to the head.
Audrey Gossett Louis, District Attorney of Atascosa County, stated KSAT that resolving a capital murder case in a year is “almost unheard of”. “We just wanted justice for the family. The verdict means that [Montoya] will die in prison rather than going through a trial and appeals. “And you never know with the jury.”
The murder was discovered around 5 a.m. on June 29, 2023, when deputies from the Atascosa County Sheriff’s Office and firefighters went to reports of a fire at West’s residence in Leming.
Louis informed the Pleasanton Express that Montoya “waited in [West’s] home to end her life,” describing her death as “a single dating woman’s worst nightmare.”
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West suffered collateral damage when she returned home during Heinz’s murder and was shot in the head, just like him. Louis continued in her statement, “Today’s plea means Montoya can no longer harm anyone outside of prison gates. While this does not restore Mary Heinz and Laura West’s tragic deaths or the lifetime of pain for their children and families, it saves the family and our community from the agony of a trial themirror stated.
Soward, the sheriff, told the Pleasanton Express that he thought Montoya was a “serial killer in the making” and labeled him as a “monster.”
