Erik Mendoza Gets Life, Barred 50 Years, for Killing 5-Year-Old Prince McCree
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Jun 8
Erik Mendoza Gets Life, Barred 50 Years, for Killing 5-Year-Old Prince McCree
3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Jun 8
Summary
18-year-old Erik Mendoza was sentenced Friday to life in prison, with no chance to seek release for 50 years, for the 2023 killing of 5-year-old Prince McCree in Milwaukee.
Court records said Mendoza, then 15, admitted choking Prince and striking him multiple times with a golf club before he and accomplice David Pietura disposed of the boy's body in a dumpster about a mile from home.
Mendoza had pleaded guilty in February to first-degree intentional homicide, hiding a corpse and three counts of recklessly endangering safety; Pietura was sentenced to life in 2024 after also pleading guilty.
Prince's disappearance on Oct. 25, 2023, later prompted Wisconsin's Prince Act, which expanded missing-child alerts beyond cases that qualify for an Amber Alert.