By MARK BOWES
A charge of first-degree murder was certified to a grand jury yesterday against a 17-year-old boy accused of shooting his 25-year-old girlfriend.
An upgraded charge of first-degree murder was certified to a grand jury yesterday against a 17-year-old Chesterfield County boy accused of fatally shooting his 25-year-old live-in girlfriend last month.
Dominic Mendoza, who will turn 18 on Aug. 2, waived his right to a preliminary hearing in Chesterfield Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court after prosecutors amended a second-degree murder count against him. The teen also is charged with felonious use of a firearm.
Mendoza is accused of fatally shooting Misty D. Bessette, 25, in a home they shared with the owner, a female friend of Bessette, in the 6300 block of Seti Court off Cogbill Road.
Because Mendoza waived his right to a preliminary hearing, prosecutor Duncan Minton was not required to present any evidence. Judge Edward Robbins certified the charges to a Chesterfield Circuit Court grand jury, and Mendoza will be tried as an adult if the grand jury returns indictments.
He will be moved from juvenile detention to the Chesterfield Jail, an adult facility, after he turns 18.
At Mendoza's detention hearing a day after the killing, a detective testified Mendoza gave investigators differing accounts of the shooting. In the last version, Mendoza said his girlfriend was fatally wounded during a hallway encounter that began with Mendoza placing the gun to his head June 23 about 7 p.m.
Mendoza told police that after hearing Bessette walking up and down the hallway, he left the bathroom and retrieved a gun that was kept under a hat in the homeowner's bedroom. Mendoza said he then walked into the hallway where Bessette was standing several feet away and placed the gun to his right temple, the detective testified.
Mendoza said his girlfriend then said, "You're not going to do this," before he took a deep breath and closed his eyes with the gun still pointed to his head. After apparently believing that Bessette had moved from the hallway to the kitchen, Mendoza told investigators that he then lowered the gun and pointed it in front of him down the hallway.
That's when a shot rang out, causing a ringing sensation in Mendoza's ears, he said. The teen told police that when he opened his eyes, he saw Bessette lying dead in the hallway with a gunshot wound to her head.
Mendoza's father, Ramon Mendoza, testified at his son's detention hearing that Mendoza was a good student but had dropped out of school and had no job except for baby-sitting. Despite living 120 miles away in Silver Spring, Md., the father said he kept in contact with Mendoza almost daily. The boy's mother lives in Chile.
Mendoza and Bessette had apparently been together about two years, Minton said yesterday.
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