A double-homicide in a motel room along Route 66 in Tucumcari, New Mexico, in 2011 finally reached a sort of conclusion when the suspect pleaded no-contest to second-degree murder Tuesday.
According to the Quay County Sun newspaper, Muziwokuthula Madonda, a native of South Africa, shot to death Tucumcari residents Gabriel Baca, 37, and Bobby Gonzales, 57, in a bathroom at the Tucumcari Inn on March 24, 2011.
An autopsy revealed that Baca was shot in the chest and Gonzales was shot in the back.
Court records do not provide any information about the motive for the shootings.
Through the course of the investigation, New Mexico State Police learned that Baca and Gonzales had occupied the room next to Madonda’s room.
The court case long had been delayed because of a retracted guilty plea and a suppressed confession; a Texas ranger who apprehended Madonda apparently botched his handling of the case. Madonda also is the suspect in two other homicides in Ohio in February 2011.
Madonda faces up to 24 years in prison in the Tucumcari case, plus deportation when his sentence is completed. Sentencing likely will be next month, once families of the victims can make arrangements to speak before the court.
No document in the Tucumcari court case offered a motive for the killings. However, a report in 2011 by the Akron Beacon-Journal in Ohio provided more background on Madonda. First, he studied being a minister:
Madonda, who also studied engineering in the United Kingdom, first settled in New Jersey about three years ago. In all, he told detectives, he visited 18 states during his travels, determined to make his wealth at a young age and help his ailing parents.
Madonda’s professional career never thrived. Detectives say his approach recently changed.
“He wanted to make life better for his parents,” Bell said. “He wanted to be a success by age 30, and he felt he was a failure because that didn’t happen.
“So he decided to start taking shortcuts. That was one of his motivations [in the robberies and slayings].” […]
Victor Browne […] said during a phone interview Thursday from Louisiana that Madonda was a quiet, religious man who attended church every Sunday.
The Ohio newspaper reported Baca of Tucumcari recently received a $1,000 tax refund. The story also details how he tried a rob a bank executive of cash she didn’t have, then shot her.
So it initially seems the motivation was greed. But a police officer in Ohio who investigated the cases there called Madonda a serial killer.
The Tucumcari Inn gets mixed reviews from overnight guests, to put it nicely. Regardless, homicides such as this one on the Route 66 town are rare, and a double-killing truly can be described as an anomaly.
(Image via Rumble Press via Flickr)