EL MIRAGE, Ariz. — A Maricopa County jury has convicted a California man for the 2001 murder of a man in El Mirage.
Frank Mendoza, 61, was found guilty on Aug. 15 of first-degree murder and is now awaiting sentencing.
The Arizona Department of Public Safety submitted charges against Mendoza in 2018 for the death of Richard Lucero, who was found dead in his El Mirage home on Dec. 20, 2001 with a ligature around his neck.
The case went unsolved for several years before advancements in DNA testing and latent prints analysis helped to identify Mendoza as a suspect. The defendant's trial began on Aug. 11.
Mendoza is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 12.
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What is the Valley?:
“The Valley” is what locals call the Phoenix Metropolitan Area. It is considered the largest metropolitan area in the Southwest.
The Valley is made up of various major cities other than Phoenix, including:
- Mesa
- Chandler
- Scottsdale
- Tempe
- Glendale
- Surprise
- Peoria
- Gilbert
- El Mirage
- Avondale
- Litchfield Park
- Goodyear
- Buckeye
Whether a city is in the “East Valley” or “West Valley” depends on where it is in relation to Phoenix.
The cities of the Valley have a combined population of 4,845,832 people, according to the 2020 United States Census. This makes it the 11th largest metropolitan area in the country right behind the Boston and Atlanta areas.