[chris]

Mario Juan Chacon Jr. pleaded guilty to murder and tampering with evidence on February 20, 2026, in the death of his former girlfriend, 20-year-old Madeline Pantoja of Midland, Texas.

Under a plea agreement in the 142nd District Court, Judge David G. Rogers sentenced Chacon to 35 years for murder and 20 years for tampering, to run concurrently. He was indicted for murder on July 19, 2023, and for tampering with evidence on November 19, 2025. He was held in the Midland County Jail on a $3 million bond. He becomes eligible for parole after serving half of the sentence and receives credit for pretrial detention. No appeal has been reported.

Pantoja lived with a dog at the Palladium Museum Place Apartments in Midland and had recently ended her relationship with Chacon. His age was reported as 24 or 27. Police said she was last seen about 11 p.m. on May 10, 2023. Friends who planned to swim with her at the complex could not reach her by phone, text or knocking. Friends and family reported her missing on May 11, 2023.

Police made welfare checks on May 11 and May 12. Officers entered the apartment on May 12 and found a mop and dirty bucket by the door, a sticky floor, a missing coffee table, damaged bathroom and bedroom doors, a missing comforter, a large red stain on the bedsheet, and a dog without food or water.

A search team using AT&T records mapped by the Texas Rangers found Pantoja's remains in south Midland County on May 20, 2023. They were identified by jewelry she was known to wear. A Dallas County autopsy reportedly gave the cause of death as strangulation and suffocation during an attack involving hands and at least one object. A source close to the investigation told local media her body was found inside her missing coffee table; authorities have not confirmed that detail. Chacon was arrested that day.

Midland police, with the Texas Rangers, questioned Chacon several times before the remains were found. He initially said he last saw Pantoja on May 9, spoke to her by phone on May 10, and had been home. On May 12, he said he had gone for drinks that night with a cousin who lived in her complex and returned home around 11 p.m. Oil company video showed a pickup matching his near the complex at 1:59 a.m. Traffic cameras, private surveillance and cellphone location data tracked his movements from about 12:26 a.m. to 3:37 a.m. On May 18, detectives told him they had found lies in his timeline; he asked to leave and was allowed to go.

In the recording of Midland police questioning him during the investigation, Chacon tells the detective he had forgotten to mention going out for drinks with a cousin on the night of Wednesday, May 10. He says his last contact with anyone that night was a text exchange around 2:23 a.m. Told he is not free to leave while his vehicle is searched, he asks whether he is being detained. At the end, the detective tells him new information has come up and begins reading him his rights. The exact date or dates of the footage were not confirmed.

[chris]

Part 2 of 2 of the recording described above.