| For Immediate Release Case # 08WF2161
November 6, 2008 |
Susan Kang Schroeder Public Affairs Counsel Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami |
MAN TO BE ARRAIGNED FOR STABBING AND MURDERING WIFE IN HUNTINGTON BEACH MOTEL AND LEAVING BODY FOR TEEN DAUGHTER TO FIND
WESTMINSTER – A husband will be arraigned tomorrow for murdering his estranged wife by stabbing her to death in a Huntington Beach motel room and leaving the body for his 17-year-old daughter to find. Fidelio Marin, 38, Huntington Beach, is charged with one felony count of murder and a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon. He faces a maximum sentence of 26 years to life in prison if convicted. Marin is being held on $1 million bail and is scheduled to be arraigned tomorrow, Friday, Nov. 7, 2008, at 9:00 a.m. in Department W-14, West Justice Center, Westminster.
On the afternoon of Oct. 10, 2008, Marin is accused of calling his wife, 32-year-old Felix Mendez, and asking her to meet him at the Starlight Motel on Beach Boulevard in Huntington Beach. The defendant had been staying in the motel because his wife, with whom he had four children, had told him that she wanted a divorce. The victim went to meet Marin at the motel with their 17-year-old daughter and stayed with the defendant after their daughter had left. Once they were alone, Marin is accused of stabbing Mendez repeatedly in the neck. He is accused of murdering the victim in the motel room and leaving her body on the floor in the bathroom.
At approximately 4:00 p.m., after several failed attempts to reach her mother and father by phone, the victim’s 17-year-old daughter drove back to the motel to check on her mother. When the daughter was unable to open the motel room door, she opened the adjacent window and climbed into the motel room, where she discovered her dead mother in a pool of blood.
Mendez’ daughter called 9-1-1. At approximately 7:00 p.m., police officers located Marin on an Orange County Transit Authority bus in the Huntington Beach area.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Scott Simmons of the Homicide Unit is prosecuting this case.
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