Overview

• Governor Javier May announced the death at a press conference on August 26 while confirming it occurred in the Villahermosa penitentiary.
• Medina Sonda was convicted as the intellectual author of the 2017 feminicide of his ex-wife, Emma Gabriela Molina Canto, in Mérida.
• He was serving a 50-year term for aggravated feminicide along with a 12-year-six-month sentence for diversion of public funds.
• Authorities reported the case as an apparent suicide, and there has been no report of a completed independent forensic investigation into the cause of death.
• His death revives questions about pending judicial matters, potential reparations for the victim’s family, and his ties to former Tabasco treasurer José Manuel Saiz Pineda.