Two Camden men were convicted of murder and related crimes Monday in the shooting death of Philadelphia Police Officer Richard Mendez at the airport in 2023.
Yobranny Martinez-Fernandez, 20, who fired the fatal shots, was found guilty of first-degree murder. Hendrick Pena-Fernandez, 23, was convicted of second-degree murder because he took part in the car theft that gave rise to the fatal shooting.
About an hour after the jury returned its verdict, both men were sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Mendez, 50, was killed after he and his partner, Raul Ortiz, tried to stop a car theft in progress in garage D at the Philadelphia International Airport. As they approached a Dodge Charger, Martinez-Fernandez opened fire as he crouched beneath the steering wheel, prosecutors said. Mendez was struck four times in the torso. Ortiz was struck once in the arm and survived his injuries.
Prosecutors said Martinez-Fernandez also unintentionally shot one of his accomplices, Jesus Madera Duran, 18, who later died at a nearby hospital. The men dropped him there during a frantic escape that eventually led them to a central New Jersey warehouse where prosecutors said they burned their getaway vehicle.
Martinez-Fernandez was also found guilty of killing Duran, in addition to nearly all related charges. Meanwhile, Pena-Fernandez was found not guilty for a handful of other offenses, including third-degree murder.
Throughout nearly a week of testimony, prosecutors argued that both men were responsible for the death of Mendez, a father of two and a 22-year veteran of the police force.
For Mendez’s widow, Alex Carrero, and the couple’s daughter, Mia, the verdict capped what they described as a two-year nightmare.
“No 19-year-old should have to pick the color of her dad’s casket,” Mia Carrero said as she addressed the judge before her father’s killers were sentenced. She wore Mendez’s police badge pinned to her sweater.
Later, she appeared outside the courthouse with her mother alongside District Attorney Larry Krasner, Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel, and other high-ranking officials.
“He was the love of my life, my soulmate,” Alex Carrero said, breaking into tears. “I have to live the rest of my life without him.”
Bethel thanked prosecutors and the jury, and told Mendez’s family their pain was “just a chapter, but it may never go away.”
“He gave his life for the safety of this city,” Bethel said of Mendez. “We will continue to carry that charge forward.”
Krasner said the sentences reflected the gravity of “a truly horrific crime.” He commended prosecutors for weathering a prolonged jury deliberation — one that lasted four days as two jurors were dismissed; one for a medical emergency and another for reasons that were not publicly disclosed.
Assistant District Attorney Cydney Pope’s case included cell tower data, surveillance footage, recovered DNA, and witnesses, including an accomplice to the crime who testified and implicated the two men. Taken together, Pope said, the evidence was compelling and linked the two men to the crime and its multistate scene.
“This is something that truly never had to happen,” Pope said before sentencing. Instead of pulling the trigger, she said, Martinez-Fernandez could have surrendered to Mendez and faced far more lenient consequences.
When asked if he would like to speak before the ruling, Martinez-Fernandez declined. Pena-Fernandez, barely audible, said: “I wish the best for everybody.”
Defense attorneys maintained that Pope did not prove that their clients were at the scene of the shooting. And they told jurors they should not trust prosecutors’ star witness, a man who joined in the airport theft and who pleaded guilty to lesser charges in exchange for his testimony.
Robert Gamburg, Pena-Fernandez’s attorney, said he planned to appeal the verdict.
“Of course we’re disappointed with the verdict,” Gamburg told reporters. “However, there are substantial issues which will be raised eventually on appeal.”
The trial took place amid an emotional atmosphere in the courtroom as dozens of police officers and department brass gathered to watch the proceedings, some offering comfort to the Carreros, who wept through the proceedings.
They sat through the presentation of evidence that included life-size mannequins of Mendez, Ortiz, and the injured accomplice, Jesus Herman Madera Duran, all with markings noting where prosecutors said 9mm bullets tore through their bodies.
Prosecutors recreated the crime scene by playing video taken by drone cameras that depicted the maze of vehicles in the concrete parking area where the shooting place. They also offered testimony from two witnesses — weary travelers who were making their way to their cars — to recount the burst of gunfire, followed by the sound of squealing tires as the men peeled out of the garage, knocking down the security gate in the process.
Prosecutors also played an audio recording of Ortiz screaming into his radio, “Officer down!” and saying that he, too, had been struck and could no longer feel his arm.
“I’m gonna faint,” he said, “I’m losing feeling.”
“They shot Rich,” he repeated throughout the call, his voice wavering in disbelief.
At the time, Mendez was the third Philadelphia officer to be killed in the line of duty since 2015. A fourth, Officer Jaime Roman, was shot in the neck during a traffic stop in 2024.
Martinez-Fernandez and Pena-Fernandez declined to testify when asked by Common Pleas Court Judge Giovanni O. Campbell whether they would like to do so. And the defense presented no witnesses of testimony.
But on cross-examination of witnesses called by prosecutors, their attorneys, Gamburg and Earl G. Kauffman, made clear that those who testified had heard — but not seen — the crime.
And Gamburg argued that his client was improperly charged with second-degree murder, a crime committed during the commission of another felony. In this case, he said, the attempted car theft was not a forceful or violent crime and should not have given rise to the more serious charge.
Gamburg told the jury Pena-Fernandez did not go out that night with the intent to kill a police officer, did not fire a weapon, and had not known that Martinez-Fernandez was carrying a gun.
The trial was also marked by jury issues that left the courtroom on edge as deliberations stretched into Monday morning.
The panel’s work was almost immediately derailed Wednesday afternoon when a juror had a medical emergency and was carried out on a stretcher. Campbell called in an alternate juror and ordered that deliberations begin anew.
Jurors appeared to be making progress Thursday as they repeatedly asked to review pieces of evidence. But Campbell later abruptly called jurors into court and told them they must approach the case with “courtesy and respect.”
No resolution came Friday, either. After nearly a full day of silence from jurors, Campbell announced that a second juror had been dismissed.
He did not explain why. And again, he ordered deliberations to start anew.
On Monday, Pope, the prosecutor, praised the jury for its diligence.
“This was a nuanced verdict,” she said. “They didn’t just go down the line and say ‘You’re guilty of all these charges.’ They went through and took their time, did the work.”
