Texas man released from prison after killing 8-year-old girl now charged with 2 more murders

[MrBig 5414]

Texas man released from prison after killing 8-year-old girl now charged with 2 more murders

Raul Meza Jr. was arrested earlier this year in the deaths of his roommate in May and a woman in 2019. He was convicted in the 1982 rape and killing of 8-year-old Kendra Page.

By The Associated Press

Aug. 11, 2023, 1:58 PM EDT

AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas man who was convicted of killing an 8-year-old girl in the 1980s and then run out of several towns following his early release from prison has been indicted on two new murder charges, including one that could carry the death penalty, prosecutors announced Friday.

Raul Meza Jr., 62, was arrested on murder charges earlier this year in the deaths of his roommate in May and a woman in 2019.Austin police said at the time they were also looking at as many as 10 cold cases going back to 1996 that could be connected Meza, though they have not announced any findings.

The indictments handed up by a Travis County grand jury on Thursday include one count of capital murder in the death of Gloria Lofton, 65, who was found in her home. The grand jury also indicted Meza on one count of murder in the death of Jesse Fraga, 80.

Meza’s attorney, Russell Hunt Jr., did not immediately return a phone message Friday. Since May, Meza has remained in jail on a $1 million bond.

According to court records, Meza called the Austin Police Department on May 24 and confessed to one of the killings when a detective answered the phone. 

“My name is Raul Meza,” the caller said, according to an affidavit. “I think you are looking for me.”

Decades earlier, Meza caused an uproar in Texas towns where he tried settling down after serving about a third of a 30-year sentence in the rape and killing of 8-year-old Kendra Page. He was released in 1993 with credit for good time served.

After picketers drove him out of six cities, Meza directly pleaded to the public.

“In my heart, I know that I will not willfully bring harm to anyone,” he said during an August 1993 news conference, in which he described himself as a born-again Christian and not a threat to society.

Officers in the Austin suburb of Pflugerville found Fraga’s body May 20 while doing a wellness check after loved ones hadn’t heard from him for several days. Lofton was strangled to death.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna99495

[TwiceHorn 31497]

Whew.  That's grotesque.  At this point you pretty much have to consider him a serial killer.  And given that the latest two were four years apart, you wonder what he was doing for the last 30 years.

[RDCanecutter 26453]

10 years for rape and murder of a child seems excessively light. Who got paid off?

[MrBig 5414]

I think he was let out early for good behavior. But hey it’s fine since Austin got an elementary school and park named after Kendra Page. What a bunch of fucking bullshit.

[Herbie Hancock 7368]

10 years for rape and murder of a child seems excessively light. Who got paid off?

The lawyers, duh.

[Beau Vine 54254]

https://www.surlyhorns.com/board/topic/31185-apd-repeatedly-fucks-up-allows-a-serial-killer-to-remain-free/

 

[Guest]

Nobody could plant some weed on him and get a serious sentence?

[Samson's Wig 3192]

11 minutes ago, slorch said:

Nobody could plant some weed on him and get a serious sentence?

No kidding.  Fucking Texas. 

[YGIFS 19452]

Yeah, seriously.  We get some high-THC gummies in the dude's pocket, he's in for 30 years and probably dies in a non-air conditioned shithole prison.  Instead he gets out and probably gets an AR-15 as a parting gift.  

Do they still do that thing when you're in a new neighborhood where you have to walk around and tell everybody you're a sex offender?  I wonder how far away we are as a "society" from somebody doing that, under court order, but they have an open carry assault rifle on them while they do it.  I guess you sign the paper and live in terror for you and your family for a year or two?  

[Beau Vine 54254]

2 hours ago, slorch said:

Nobody could plant some weed gummies on him and get a serious sentence?

fify

[LW Goatman 1124]

Re the 30 years, on the surface that shocks the conscious. Even the most criminal friendly jurisdictions aren't going to go light on a rape/murder of a child. I'm guessing there was good evidence but some element(s) may have been tenuous, which resulted in a "compromised" deal/open plea not likely/whatever. 

[Samson's Wig 3192]

On 8/12/2023 at 1:07 PM, LW Goatman said:

Re the 30 years, on the surface that shocks the conscious. Even the most criminal friendly jurisdictions aren't going to go light on a rape/murder of a child. I'm guessing there was good evidence but some element(s) may have been tenuous, which resulted in a "compromised" deal/open plea not likely/whatever. 

I remember a classmate in Contracts 1 getting his asshole ripped wide open by the professor in front of the entire class for writing that on an exam.

[SquishMitten 10415]

To be fair, the unconscious are notoriously hard to shock by written words.

[Brisketexan 105158]

18 minutes ago, SquishMitten said:

To be fair, the unconscious are notoriously hard to shock by written words.

[HouTex 1878]

We need a Star Chamber.  
 

Just kidding . . .  sort of.