RHINELANDER, Wis.–A man here has been found guilty in a three-decade-old cold case involving the murder of a woman inside a credit union.
Robin D. Mendez, 70, was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Barbara Mendez, who died from multiple blows to her head. Barbara Mendez was an employee of Park City Credit Union at the time of her murder and was killed while working late.
"On April 28, 1982, Mr. Mendez saw an opportunity and he took it," said Marathon County Judge Jill Falstad, who presided over the case as a substitute in Oneida County court. Mendez waived a jury trial, so Falstad decided the verdict, according to the Wausau Daily Herald. The judge spent more than an hour explaining her reasons for convicting Robin Mendez to a courtroom filled with Barbara Mendez's family and news media, the publication reported.
As CUToday.info reported earlier, according to a 36-page criminal complaint, Barbara Mendez was left alone in the credit union office (which has since been torn down) after the manager went home sick on April 28, 1982. She was expected to close up for the day at approximately 5 p.m.; it was the first and only time Mendez closed the credit union alone, according to a statement the manager gave investigators.
What Records Show
“Computerized records show Mendez had begun entering the balance sheet, a key part of her closing activities, at 5:02 p.m. and finished at 5:13 p.m.,” the complaint stated. “Approximately two hours later, the manager received a call from Robin Mendez reporting that Barbara was expected at the Assembly of God Church in Woodruff at 6:15 p.m. and had not arrived. According to the manager, Robin asked her to drive to the credit union office and look for Barbara. Although the church was actually closer to the credit union than her home, the manager agreed to go look for Barbara. According to the complaint, the manager told investigators she immediately noticed Barbara's car was still in the credit union parking lot and became alarmed after realizing that the door to the office was unlocked. After walking inside, she discovered Barbara's body face down on the floor in front of the credit union's safe. She later noted that a deposit bag containing approximately $2,700 was missing but approximately $17,000 was plainly visible in the open safe.”
In finding Robin Mendez guilty, Judge Falstad addressed claims made by defense attorneys that there were two other people who could have killed Barbara Mendez. The first was a man whom a witness claimed to have driven to the Minocqua credit union where Barbara Mendez worked. The witness said the man went into the bank with a gun and a knife and came back out covered in blood. The witness later admitted he made the story up in the hope of getting a lighter sentence on a federal charge he was facing and because he had a grudge against the man he claimed killed Barbara Mendez, Falstad said, according to the Wausau Daily Herald.
Theory Shot Down
Another theory put forward, that a second alternative killer was one of two brothers who were angry when Barbara Mendez said she couldn't cash a check for them unless they became members of the credit union after having been earlier arguing loudly inside the credit union and saying they would return, was also found not to be credible by Falstad, the publication reported.
According to authorities, those men left, returned and Barbara Mendez cashed their check when one brother became a member of the credit union and she made a call to verify the money was in the account on which the check was written.
The judge said Mendez's claim he had an alibi also was not believable. “Mendez's two daughters, who at the time of Barbara Mendez's death were ages 11 and 13, testified that Robin Mendez had coached them on what to say when police interviewed them,” the Wausau Daily Herald reported. “The two women said they were made to fear losing the only parent they had left, if police didn't believe them.”
The girls also testified their memories were not reliable when it came to the day their mother was murdered. Robin Mendez had altered their memories too many times, Falstad said, the Daily Herald stated.
According to authorities, “Barbara Mendez's close friend testified she talked on the phone with Barbara the day before her murder, Falstad said. Robin Mendez was having an affair with a then-14-year-old girl, and Barbara Mendez said she was sick and upset she couldn't fix her marriage, the judge said,” the Wausau Daily Herald said. “Barbara Mendez told her friend she was making Robin Mendez a Mexican dinner and telling him she would leave if things didn't change.”
One Woman’s Testimony
According to the report, the woman with whom Robin Mendez had an affair testified she originally told police she was talking to Robin Mendez shortly after 5 p.m. on the day of the murder because Robin Mendez told her to say so. “She would later tell investigators she lied and Robin Mendez was not there when she first called. She said she wasn't able to reach him until after 5:30 p.m. that day,” the Wausau Daily Herald stated. “The girl testified that Robin Mendez told her he was ‘footloose and fancy free’ the after the murder on April 28, 1982, and they had sex together the next day, Falstad said. He told the girl not to tell police they had sex prior to the murder because he feared it would give police a motive.”
During court proceedings, it was stated that the former manager had heard Barbara Mendez on the day of her murder tell her husband on the phone that she was working late.
Although there was $17,000 in the vault the day of the murder and the vault was open, only the $2,467 in a teller drawer was taken.
According to authorities, Robin Mendez worked for his family's upholstery business and had a tool called a Wonder Bar, which is similar to a crow bar. “His brother would later give the tool to investigators,” the Wausau Daily Herald reported. “An expert testified the Wonder Bar could have made the injuries found on Barbara Mendez's head, Falstad said. “She said the expert ruled out a crow bar, wrench, knife, gun and several other weapons.”
Inmates Come Forward
In addition, two Oneida County Jail inmates in the same cell block as Robin Mendez after police arrested him for the murder in February 2018 testified Robin Mendez confessed, the judge told the court. “They said he kept the Wonder Bar in a motorcycle trunk he stored in his family business for a few years and then burned in a bonfire,” the Wausau Daily Herald reported. “The information wasn't part of the criminal complaint filed against Robin Mendez and wasn't known to investigators until they verified it with Robin Mendez's brother.”
The inmates also said Robin Mendez bragged about going on a trip out west the summer after the murder with the 14-year-old girl with whom he had the affair, Falstad said.
According to witnesses, Robin Mendez was “acting strangely at the church and said he was worried because his wife hadn't arrived, Falstad said. He said he had gone to a grocery store prior to church, and he would have had to have driven by the credit union and would have seen his wife's car there, Falstad said. Barbara Mendez also had phoned her husband to tell him she was working late,” according to the report. “Instead of going to check on his wife himself, Robin Mendez called the sick manager and asked her to drive to the credit union and check. The manager found Barbara Mendez dead by the vault,” Falstad said.