Overview

• Moises Sandoval Mendoza, convicted of the 2004 abduction, sexual assault, and murder of Rachelle O'Neil Tolleson, was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas.
• Mendoza confessed to strangling Tolleson, burning her body in a field, and leaving her six-month-old daughter behind, who was later found unharmed.
• The execution occurred after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a final appeal to halt the proceedings just hours before the lethal injection.
• Several of Tolleson’s family members, including her mother Pam O'Neil, attended the execution, expressing relief after two decades of legal delays.
• This marks the third execution in Texas in 2025 and the 13th in the U.S. this year, continuing debates over the ethics and costs of capital punishment.