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Jose Mendoza-Espinoza was convicted of first-degree murder and four counts of tampering with evidence on February 10, 2025, in the death of Sherlyn Marjorie, 35, a transgender woman and popular drag performer in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Mendoza-Espinoza, who was married, was 29 when arrested and 30 at trial. He told detectives he and Marjorie had a secret sexual relationship of two to three years and that she threatened to tell his wife unless he paid her. Court records noted no corroborating evidence for the extortion claims. After Marjorie's death, friends organized a memorial, a benefit tribute show and a car wash to pay for her funeral.

Marjorie was last seen on September 16, 2023, and investigators said she died on September 17. Mobile home park video showed a man in an SUV meeting her outside a trailer registered in his wife's name; GPS data from her car showed a visit to the park. She was reported missing to Albuquerque police on September 24, and a search party found her car at a Love's gas station that day. On September 26, the search party found her body in a drainage tunnel under Central Avenue near 136th Street on Albuquerque's West Side. Her hands and feet were bound, and her head was wrapped in tape. A forensic pathologist later testified that she died of asphyxiation, by strangulation or by suffocation.

The Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office identified Mendoza-Espinoza as a suspect and arrested him on October 11, 2023. He was charged with murder and four counts of tampering with evidence. The sheriff's office said it had no evidence the killing was a hate crime. Prosecutors called him a dangerous individual and moved to hold him in jail until trial.

According to court records, Mendoza-Espinoza told detectives Marjorie asked for $5,000 and threatened to tell his wife about their relationship. He said they argued after having sex, that he "flipped out" and beat her, then bound her, hid her body, left her car at the gas station and threw both of their cellphones onto the mesa. At trial, a prosecutor told jurors they would see portions of his interview with sheriff's investigators in which he acknowledged that he "snapped" and struck her.

The trial opened on February 3, 2025, in Second Judicial District Court in Albuquerque before Judge Emeterio Rudolfo. Jurors could convict on first-degree murder, second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter; the indictment listed six counts of tampering with evidence. The defense acknowledged that Mendoza-Espinoza killed Marjorie and sought a lesser conviction. Testifying in his own defense, he said he knelt on her throat after she demanded $5,000, threatened to send sexually explicit photos and videos to his wife and attacked him, and that he blacked out. Prosecutors argued that he killed her intentionally and tried to conceal the crime by hiding her body in the drainage tunnel.

After the verdict, his attorneys said in a written statement that they planned to appeal. On March 25, 2025, Judge Rudolfo sentenced him to life in prison. The total sentence was reported as life plus 12 years. As of November 1, 2026, no appeal ruling had been reported.

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Part 2 of 2 of the recording described above.