Candie Dominguez, [photo], been sentenced to by a San Antonio court to serve 30 years in prison for luring, killing and dismembering her cousin, whose remains were burned on a barbecue pit

A 39-year-old San Antonio woman has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for severing the limbs of her cousin, who was beaten and dismembered before his remains were burned on a barbecue pit.
A judge sentenced Candie Dominguez on Monday. She had confessed Friday to participating in the September, 10 2014 murder of her cousin, Jose Luis Menchaca, 35, over a botched drug deal and stabbing.
The San Antonio Express-News reported that Dominguez testified Friday she had no remorse for her role in the slaying of Menchaca, whose remains were burned on a barbecue pit.

Candie Dominguez, [photo]who admitted to severing Menchaca’s limbs herself, told the court: ‘At this time I do not feel remorse, I feel nothing but anger. I’m sorry he lost his life, yes, but we cannot change things. I accept things for what they are, and look forward.’

Candie Dominguez was 35 in Sept. 2014 when she, an ex-boyfriend and his cousin were arrested and charged in the gruesome beating death of Jose Luis Menchaca, 35, Dominguez’s cousin.

In a pre-sentencing hearing Friday, Dominguez, now 39, testified that she lured her cousin to the home where he was beaten and suffocated, and that she helped dismember him before her then-boyfriend, Daniel Moreno Lopez, and his cousin, Gabriel Moreno, burned his remains, all in retaliation over a stabbing involving a botched drug deal.

Dominguez’s then-boyfriend, Daniel Moreno Lopez, was also was convicted in the killing last June and was sentenced to life in prison.
Lopez’s cousin, Gabriel Moreno, was acquitted during a retrial in December after a previous trial ended with the jury deadlocked.
At a hearing on Monday, Dominguez told the court: ‘At this time I do not feel remorse, I feel nothing but anger.
‘I’m sorry he lost his life, yes, but we cannot change things. I accept things for what they are, and look forward.’
When Jimenez asked her if she ever felt emotion for her crime, Dominguez replied: ‘No, I don’t.
‘The way I grew up, the way my life was, I didn’t show emotion. I never have. With everything I have gone through, emotions are useless.’ Dominguez previously testified that she lured her cousin to the home where he was beaten and suffocated in San Antonio

In closing arguments, defense attorney Tony Jimenez urged the judge to be lenient.
He claimed that her lack of emotion was because of a childhood of sexual assault and years of abusive relationships as an adult.
Prosecutor Jessica Schultz said Dominguez “is at least a sociopath” because she showed no remorse, and said a just sentence would be life. A life sentence, however, wasn’t an option in the case, and urged Rangel to go for no less than the maximum 30 years.
Dominguez was the last of three people to go to trial in a killing that made headlines due to the brutal way Menchaca was killed.

Menchaca was set upon inside Dominguez’s home in the 400 block of Hillwood Drive on the North Side.
He was beaten with baseball bats, suffocated, dismembered and his charred remains were discovered on a barbecue pit in Dominguez’s backyard.

His girlfriend, Sylvia Flores, 29, was held against her will for days after the killing and had given evidence at the trials of Lopez and Moreno.
Lopez, 32, was convicted of murder in June 2018, and had to be removed from the courtroom following an angry outburst at the verdict.

He will have to serve 30 years in jail before he will be eligible for parole. He will remain on supervision for the rest of his life if he is ever to be released from jail.
Lopez’s cousin, Moreno, also was tried twice in Menchaca’s killing.

Candie Dominguez, 35, and Daniel Moreno Lopez, 28, at the time were arrested on a charge of murder Oct. 3, 2014 after police found the body parts of her missing cousin Jose Luiz MenChaca, wrapped in trash bags in their home     The gruesome crime scene at the San Antonio home on September 30, 2014

Proceedings began February 23, 2018, but after four days of deliberations, Rangel declared a mistrial March 9 after jurors told him they were hopelessly deadlocked.
Moreno was retried in December, and the jury found him not guilty.
Details of the attack were so gruesome the victim’s mother had to be taken out of the courtroom on a stretcher, My San Antonio reported.
One witness, Dennis Austin, previously told the juror that what he saw in Lopez and Moreno’s San Antonio home the day of the beating looked like a scene from a ‘horror movie’.

Killer: Dominguez’ boyfriend Daniel Moreno Lopez [photo] was convicted of murder in June 2018, and had to be physically removed from the courtroom following an angry outburst at the verdict. He is serving a life sentence for the murder

Austin said he stopped by the Hillwood Drive home on September 30 and he saw Menchaca bound at his hands and feet, with his mouth taped, My San Antonio reports.
He said the walls and a couch were covered in blood.
‘He [Menchaca] was bleeding from the cheeks, there was blood everywhere on him. It was like a horror movie,’ he said.
Austin told the courtroom that he also witnessed Moreno and Lopez try to suffocate Menchaca with a pillow and plastic bag. He said Menchaca begged Lopez not to kill him.

Candie Dominguez will have to serve at least 15 years before she’s eligible for parole

The second accused person Lopez’s cousin, Gabriel Moreno, also was tried twice in Menchaca’s killing. Proceedings began Feb. 23, 2018, but after four days of deliberations, Rangel declared a mistrial March 9 after jurors told him they were hopelessly deadlocked. Moreno was retried in December, and the jury found him not guilty.
In the end, Rangel sentenced Dominguez to the maximum 30 years in her plea deal, in exchange for her testimony in two of the four trials involving Lopez and Moreno.