SAN ANTONIO – An 84-year-old Southeast Side man pleaded for his life while two suspects held him down and suffocated him, according to an arrest affidavit.
The details of Manuel Mendez’s brutal murder have emerged in the document related to the arrests this week of two suspects in the case.
Records show Leidy Hernandez, 43, was booked into the Bexar County jail Thursday afternoon. Ulani Nunes, 23, was already in custody since July in connection with a separate case.
Both women now face a charge of capital murder.
The affidavit states the suspects, who are in a romantic relationship, ran into Mendez at an H-E-B store, then came up with a plan to rob and kill him.
It says they arranged a meeting with the victim at a property on Chickering Avenue, under the guise that they wanted to rent from him.
Once inside the home, the suspects tied Mendez’s hands and feet, then held him down while they covered his nose and mouth with tape, towels and other items, the affidavit says.
According to that document, Nunes and Hernandez intentionally suffocated him, and it took about 30 minutes for him to die.
During the attack, Mendez was pleading for his life, the affidavit states.
Police found Mendez’s burning body in a ditch along Rigsby Avenue after a passerby noticed the fire.
The affidavit says investigators found evidence including video of the suspects with Mendez prior to his murder.
The suspects also face charges in an unrelated robbery case which happened a few days after Mendez’s murder.
Police say the similarities in that case — an elderly landlord who was tied up and robbed — raised their suspicions about the suspects’ connection to Mendez’s murder.
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