Angelo Mendoza Ate His Sons Eyes…

While I crack jokes and make fun of some of the criminals that I write about, including some of the real sickos, every once in a great while a story just comes out that really disturbs me and makes me wonder why I write about these depraved bastards. Angelo Vidal Mendoza, Sr. happens to be one of them and what he did to his son left me speechless. I actually came across this story at several of the crime sites I frequent last night and while I wanted to write about I couldn’t bring myself to do it until today.

Back on April 28th Angelo was at home with son Angelo Jr, who he has custody of. At some point during the day Angelo Mendoza had asked his neighbor for a ride to an appointment.  Angelo is confined to a wheelchair and depends on other people for transportation. At around 6 p.m. the neighbor, Elizabeth Rodriguez, sent her 12-year-old son to Mendoza’s to let him know it was time to go. When the boy knocked on the door Mendoza nervously answered it and wouldn’t let the boy in, rather telling him he would be right out.

A short time later Rodriguez saw Mendoza rolling his wheelchair away. When her son and another neighbor went to Mendoza’s apartment. What they saw shocked them. Little four-year-old Angelo Rodriguez was lying on the floor naked and bleeding from bites to his hands, and his eyes were swollen shut. They dialed 911.

The other neighbor, Ramon Rodriguez, had this to say to KERO Channel 23:

Rodriguez said the boy’s father wheeled himself into the front yard and asked Rodriguez to play with him and a pet dog. He was wearing boxers and a sweater. When Rodriguez refused, Mendoza got off his wheelchair and dragged himself into a back yard, where he found an ax.

By then Mendoza, who police determined was under the influence of PCP, had stripped naked. He chained himself to a tree in the back yard and began hacking at his leg with a pickax while yelling incoherently.

“He told me to look into the sun and pray with him. I was kinda scared for a minute,” said Rodriguez, “The guy was crazy. Real bug-eyed; he had to be on drugs,”

Then Rodriguez jumped on Mendoza and wrestled the ax away.

“As soon as I grabbed the ax he tried to bite me, and I had to hold him down with my knee. There was dry blood around his mouth. I don’t know if it was his own, but I’m pretty sure it was his son’s now that I hear the story,” said Rodriguez.

Rodriguez said had he known about little Angelo, the outcome would have been different.

“I would’ve just let him cut his leg off. What happened to his son is not right. I would’ve left him alone,” said Rodriguez.

When EMTs got Angelo to the hospital so that doctors could take a look at him they found that his left eye and the muscle were missing and the other eye was mutilated to the point where it is beyond repair. The child told them that “My daddy bit my eyes and hands, He ate my eyes out“.

Apparently Mendoza, who has at minimum 22 prior criminal cases since the late 90’s, was under the influence of PCP at the time he permanently blinded his little boy.  Get this though, little Angelo’s mother Desirae had come by the house earlier to deliver a pizza. Her son screamed for her to take him with her. “Mommy, mommy, I want to go with you, I’m scared”. Thinking he was safe with his father she left him there.

34-year-old Angelo Vidal Mendoza Sr is recovering from the injuries he gave himself and is facing charges of torture, aggravated mayhem and cruelty to a child (not the first cruelty to a child charge he’s faced either) and his bail has been set at $1 million.

Even after having had a couple of days to think about it I am still having a hard time getting my head around this. The dude needs to be staked out naked for birds to peck him apart, starting with his eyes.