A Nevada man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for murdering his estranged wife in front of their kids following a family court hearing in which she was awarded custody and the family home.

Prosecutors say Roidan Mendoza, 40, of Las Vegas , was "upset that he's losing control" of his children and wanted to "get revenge" on his former spouse, Marillorky Tamayo Cruz, by shooting her dead in August 2023, according to local CBS affiliate KLAS and the Las Vegas Review-Journal .

"He wants to be vindicated," Clark County Deputy District Attorney Corey Hallquist said in court Wednesday at Mendoza's sentencing after he pleaded guilty on Aug. 25, 2025, to murder with use of a deadly weapon.

"There's really nothing that can put you in that moment, right?" Hallquist said about what Tamayo

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