Second man admits role to double murder, beheading in Alabama

Published 5:01 pm Friday, April 21, 2023

A second man accused of killing a woman and her teenage granddaughter as part of a suspected drug ring pleaded guilty earlier this month to the crimes, a TV station reported.

Yoni Aguilar, 31, pleaded guilty to two counts of murder in the 2018 deaths of Oralia Mendoza, 49, and her granddaughter Mariah Lopez, 13, WHNT-TV reported.

Aguilar was sentenced to two counts of life in prison.

A second man, Israel Palomino, pleaded guilty to the crimes last year and also received two consecutive life sentences.

The pair were arrested shortly after a farmer found Lopez’s body and later Mendoza’s in two separate locations.

The murders were reportedly tied an argument over the Sinaloa cartel’s drug trafficking.

Reportedly Aguilar and and Mendoza got into an argument over a drug run and Palamino killed her. Then, they realized the teenager had witnessed the murder, Aguilar said Palamino forced him to kill the teenager. She was beheaded, investigators said.