Moises Sandoval Mendoza, 40, has been scheduled for execution by lethal injection on April 23, 2025, in Huntsville, Texas. Mendoza was convicted of the 2004 kidnapping, sexual assault, and murder of 20-year-old Rachelle O’Neil Tolleson, a Farmersville woman whose brutal death shocked the community.
On March 18, 2004, in Collin County, Mendoza strangled Tolleson to death, hid her body behind his house for several days, and later attempted to conceal the crime by burning her body and burying it under a brush pile in a rural area near Highway 380, close to Copeville and Greenville.
Mendoza, who was 20 years old at the time of the crime, was a 2001 graduate of Farmersville High School, the same school Tolleson attended. The two had reconnected approximately six weeks before the murder while attending Collin County Community College.
The night of Tolleson’s disappearance, Mendoza was reportedly seen drinking and socializing with friends Jeremy Neil and Travis Rose. Authorities later determined that Mendoza committed the crime at Tolleson’s home before moving her body to his residence and eventually to the rural site.
At the time of the murder, Mendoza had outstanding warrants for aggravated assault and robbery dating back to November 2003. Despite the warrants, he had not been apprehended, leaving him free to commit the crime.
Mendoza was convicted and sentenced to death on July 1, 2005. His execution date marks over two decades since the crime that claimed Tolleson's life.
