Pregnant mom's murder ends with manslaughter plea deals in Phoenix
After three years of investigations and court hearings, two men pled to the manslaughter of a 22-year-old pregnant woman who was shot to death in Phoenix.
During the pandemic, a murder-robbery plot ended with Chardae Todd, 22, shot dead in the street.
On the night of Nov. 9, 2020, Todd was shot five times in her car. Her boyfriend, Luis Romero, who was in the car with her, pulled her out and left her on the street before driving off with his cousin Nathaniel Vaughn.
Wilbur Tochico, 27, and Manuel Mendoza, 18, who were responsible for the shooting, pled guilty after prosecutors offered them deals to accept lesser manslaughter charges and were each sentenced to 16 years in prison.
The state presented a case in court documents that painted a picture of a drive-by shooting hitting an unintended target, with a third missing man at fault.
But Todd’s mother claimed in court that the whole thing had been a setup involving Romero.She believed Tochico and Mendoza knew more than they confessed to.
What happened?
The case never made it to trial because of the plea deals, but much of the state’s version of events was laid out in court filings and police records.
According to the state, the murder began as retribution.
Mendoza, who was 16 at the time, had been robbed by Romero a few months before the shooting. Mendoza had wanted to rob and shoot him as a response, according totestimonyby Tochico.
Mendoza messaged Romero on Snapchat to set up a deal. Some records said Mendoza wanted to buy guns, and other records stated he was there to buy pot. But the deal was a trap, according to Tochico’s comments in court.
They set up a meeting for the night of Nov. 9 near 41st Avenue and Tonto Street, a residential neighborhood in Phoenix.
Court records in Tochico’s case claimed that Mendoza had convinced Tochico, his cousin, to drive him there.
They state that Mendoza soothed Tochico by telling him that the plan had changed from killing Romero to just robbing him. Mendoza sat in the back seat and directed his cousin to pull up against the passenger side of Todd’s car to see if Romero was in there.
When Tochico pulled up, Mendoza shot into the car and hit Todd, documents alleged.
At his sentencing, Tochico contradicted what was in the record, claiming that a third man shot Todd. Someone else who was in the car with the cousins.
"I knew Manuel, but I did not know the other guy," he said.
Records later lined up with Tochico’s account. They named Enrique Miranda-Mongue, of unknown age, as the shooter in the backseat.
Todd’s mother, Charlotte Todd, later claimed in court that Mendoza had shot Todd as part of a plan to kill her daughter.
Who shot Chardae?
Miranda-Mongue was the boyfriend of Mendoza’s mom, according to court records, and the man prosecutors said at Mendoza’s sentencing on Friday shot Todd.
Miranda-Mongue fled to Mexico, according to court records.
According to later records submitted by the defense and by the Maricopa County prosecutors, Miranda-Mongue had convinced Mendoza to get retribution.
The night of the shooting, it was he who was in the back seat of Tochico’s car while Tochico drove and Mendoza sat in the passenger seat.
At his sentencing, Tochico said that the plan had been for him to park down the street and for Mendoza to run out, but when Mendoza told him to drive by the car, Miranda-Mongue pulled a gun out and shot into Todd’s car.
Maricopa Deputy County Attorney Stephanie Low stressed to the court that this version of events was the facts the state agreed on with the defense. The state's theory of the case shifted.
Low’s comments directly responded to Charlotte Todd’s claims that Mendoza had been part of an assassination attempt to kill her daughter.
Mother claims assassination attempt in court
Todd’s mother and other family members spoke in court on Friday for two hours. At that time, they laid out a series of events not presented in the court filings.
Toddler in the car
First, they claimed that Chardae Todd had a 2- to 3-year-old daughter who had been sitting in the car when her mother died.
No court records mentioned the child having been in the car, but Charlotte Todd said that the young girl had ear damage from the shooting and has repeatedly recounted what she saw in the car to them.
“You know what she writes in her journal, ‘my mommy got killed in front of me.’ That's what I have to deal with. Every day.”
Neighbors' story
She also told the court that residents from the neighborhood had told her they didn’t see a drive-by, that they saw Mendoza get out of Tochico’s car like Tochico said they had initially planned.
Charlotte Todd said neighbors told her that Mendoza got into Todd's car before the shooting.
Charlotte Todd looked at Mendoza, telling him, “You were in that car and I know you were. Everyone over there told me you got in that back seat and I know you were there and I hope to God that I can forgive you.”
She said that she believed Luis Romero, Nathanial Vaughn and Mendoza left Todd on the roadside after being shot.
"She had to lay there and die alone and have nobody," she said.
She didn’t understand why the case ended with two manslaughter plea deals but claimed that she was planning on filing a formal complaint.
‘You took away my happiness’
Todd’s family described her as determined, caring and smart at sentencing.
Her grandparents described Todd's joy in caring for her firstborn.
Her mother talked about raising Todd to be self-empowered to give her children more than they had.
Todd had attended Brookline College and was working at FedEx while raising one daughter and was four months pregnant with her second.
At Tochico’s sentencing, Todd’s father looked at Tuchico when he spoke.
”I was supposed to protect my daughter, but I failed. You can’t imagine what you have done,” he said.
He paused, trying to contain his grief, but broke and shouted, “You took away my happiness.”
Tochico, who was in a wheelchair due to health issues, asked a guard to wheel him away from the direction of Todd’s father.
At Mendoza’s sentencing, Todd’s father echoed the same grief as he walked out of the courtroom, too upset to stay but continuing to shout, “you took away my happy.”
Tochico’s mother spoke to the court at her son’s sentencing. She said that though the pain of her son going to prison was not the same as losing a loved one to violence, she felt that this crime hurt both families.
“God has a plan,” she said.
Mendoza’s family crowded the courtroom at his sentencing, and his mother attempted to speak to the court but could not continue because she said she was emotionally overwhelmed.
Mendoza’s private attorney, David Le Lievre, instead spoke in favor of his client's family. He said that though the crime could never be justified or explained, it was important to know that Mendoza had come from a violent upbringing as a child and that when the crime happened, he was only 16. He said that Mendoza was pressured by Miranda-Mongue, an adult, into carrying out the plan to shoot Todd’s car.
Both Tochico and Mendoza spoke to the court.
Tochico spoke from a prepared letter. He acknowledged that his regret did little for the grieving family but hoped that he could at least tell them his version of events and give them some insight. He told them about Mendoza wanting retribution against Luis, about him being dragged into driving, about finding out while driving that the plan was to shoot Romero. He called himself a coward for deciding to drive that day, even after discovering what the other men had planned.
Mendoza was brief. He told the court he wanted to apologize for the loss and pain he caused Todd’s family and that he took responsibility for his actions.
Tochico was sentenced to 16 years in prison on June 15, more than the mid-range in his plea, still less than the maximum he could have been given.
Mendoza was also sentenced to 16 years for manslaughter, an aggravated sentence but still below the maximum.
Outside of court, Charlotte Todd said that she would be filing a complaint about the investigation.
“What’s right is right and what’s wrong is wrong,” she said, “and I will spend every dollar to make this right and I will do it to my last breath.”
This reporting follows crimes The Republic began to cover in 2020 and is part of our commitment to telling the story from start to finish.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: A plan to murder and rob ends life of Phoenix pregnant mother
