Serial-killers link dropped from defense case - Stockton Record

Serial-killers link dropped from defense case – Stockton Record

February 27, 2013 12:00 AM

STOCKTON – Prosecutors charging a woman with murder say her claims that her husband, the victim, had confessed to being the third wheel in a killing spree led by Loren Her og and Wesley Shermantine are unfounded.

Rebecca Mendo a, 54, claims she shot to death her 50-year-old husband, Michael Laurence Bradford, after he threatened to get rid of her, too.

Prosecutor Jeffrey Derman said the defendant never made those statements until recently.

Bradford’s name is mentioned in reports associated with the serial killers, Derman confirmed. But there is no existing correlation between that investigation and the criminal threats Mendo a alleges Bradford made against her, he said.

Superior Court Judge Brett Morgan on Tuesday found no relevant connection and consequently ordered the reports naming Bradford sealed.

Mendo a’s claims also are drawing protests from Bradford’s ex-wife Sandra Parker.

Parker said Bradford was a friend of Shermantine’s and had been fishing with him the day he was arrested in 1999, but she said Bradford had no involvement in the 15-year killing spree.

Parker, also the mother of Bradford’s four children, ages 14 to 20, said he was the one afraid of Mendo a; that she had knocked out one of his teeth before and had tried to set him on fire.

Mendo a was arrested on suspicion of shooting Bradford during an afternoon dispute in March 2011. He died in a hospital five months later.

But defense attorney Ralph Cingcon said in court papers that Bradford was prone to having violent outbursts because of a brain injury that resulted from an altercation with a K-Mart security officer some time ago.

“During his violent episodes, Mr. Bradford had threatened … that he had killed people before with Loren Her og and Wesley Shermantine,” Cingcon said. “The defendant believed Mr. Bradford’s threats and was afraid of him as he had once helped them clean blood from the seat of a pick-up truck.”

Contact reporter Jennie Rodrigue -Moore at (209) 943-8564 or jrodrigue @recordnet.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/courtsblog.

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Serial-killers link dropped from defense case - Stockton Record