Opinion ID: 2686798
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Nilia Mendoza

Text: Mendoza’s mother, Nilia Mendoza, testified at length about Mendoza’s tumultuous and tragic childhood. Ms. Mendoza testified that her son was born in 1966 in Havana, Cuba. 7 As a newborn, Mendoza “would always get sick” and received surgery at age one for water in the testicles. He received the same surgery a second time and developed asthma and vomiting problems. Mendoza also suffered “attacks,” during which he would “lose consciousness” and would have to be taken to a psychologist for treatment. As he grew older, Mendoza became “[v]ery restless, very dominant.” Mendoza would get in fights with other children at school in Cuba. When Mendoza was approximately three-years-old, his mother took him to see a psychologist at a Cuban hospital. Mendoza received psychological treatment at this hospital for approximately two years, from ages three to five. He was treated at a different hospital in Cuba from ages six to twelve. These subsequent doctors told Ms. Mendoza that her son suffered from “aggressive conduct . . . like schizophrenia.” In 1980, Ms. Mendoza, with her husband and her son, attempted to leave Cuba by seeking refuge at the Peruvian embassy in Havana. Ms. Mendoza explained, “We jumped the fence and we got into the embassy.” At that time, 7 Mendoza was his parents’ only child. 12 Case: 13-14968 Date Filed: 07/31/2014 Page: 13 of 58 “[t]here were ten thousand people inside the Peruvian embassy.” Because there were so many people, the Mendoza family left the embassy after obtaining a permit go to the United States. The Mendozas returned to their home in Havana. For the next week, the police came “every once in a while to get [the family] out [and] take [them] to the airport and then . . . let [them] go somewhere in Cuba so that the police would hit [them] and then [they] would go back home.” Ms. Mendoza affirmed that all three family members were beaten during this period. Mendoza was about 14-years-old at the time. Eventually, the police allowed the Mendozas to leave Cuba, telling them that they could go to the United States. However, the family went to Costa Rica for a day, and then to Peru. They stayed in Peru for two years and three months, during which time they lived in tents in a city park. Approximately 800 other Cuban refugees lived with the Mendozas in this tent village, with each tent housing between 16 and 18 people. Ms. Mendoza testified that the family did not have access to medical care. Her son suffered a nervous crisis and developed typhoid, and Mendoza’s father lost his hearing and had a nervous breakdown. The Mendozas filed applications for asylum in the United States, which were not granted. Eventually, the family left Peru, traveled to Mexico, and entered the United States by crossing the Mexican-American border. In August 1982, the 13 Case: 13-14968 Date Filed: 07/31/2014 Page: 14 of 58 Mendozas settled in Miami, where Mr. Mendoza found work in construction. Her son was around 16-years-old at the time. 8 Ms. Mendoza testified that, when the family first arrived in Miami, they registered their son at Miami High School. Initially, “he was doing all right, but then he had trouble.” Mendoza dropped out of high school and took night classes. Ms. Mendoza never arranged for her son to receive mental health treatment in the United States because “he never wanted to.” As to when she suspected Mendoza was using drugs, Ms. Mendoza answered: “Well, really in the beginning, I didn’t realize because I didn’t know much about it. But afterwards, I did.” Ms. Mendoza occasionally found marijuana cigarette butts in her son’s bedroom, and he “was always asking for money.” Mendoza started to steal his mother’s jewelry. On cross-examination, Ms. Mendoza acknowledged that she never observed Mendoza using other illegal drugs or alcohol, but stated that she “kn[e]w little about drugs.” She did once have to go and pick Mendoza up from a bar and observed him drunk. Mendoza obtained his general equivalency degree (“GED”) and performed various part-time jobs. He worked at a Kentucky Fried Chicken, for a construction company, and then for a plumber. 8 While Ms. Mendoza, at one point, said that Mendoza was 14-years-old when he arrived in the United States, she also testified that Mendoza was born in 1966 and came to the United States in 1982, which made him approximately 16 at that time. 14 Case: 13-14968 Date Filed: 07/31/2014 Page: 15 of 58 Ms. Mendoza testified that her son later married a woman whom he had met in the refugee camp in Peru. They married in the United States and had two children. Mendoza’s daughter, who was five at the time of the trial, was born with birth defects. According to Ms. Mendoza, her son “had a nervous attack” when he learned of his daughter’s birth defects. Mendoza’s marriage did not last. By the time of Mendoza’s 1992 offenses, he was divorced, no longer living with his children, and his former wife would not let him see the children.