OGDEN — A Holladay woman raised no defense yet offered no apology Tuesday as she was sentenced to up to life in prison for brutally stabbing her girlfriend to death.
"There's no excuse for what I did, that's the main reason I pleaded guilty," Victoria Mendoza told the judge. "I know I'm the monster here."
Mendoza pleaded guilty to murder, a first-degree felony, for stabbing her girlfriend, 21-year-old Tawnee Marie Baird, 46 times as they drove down the freeway. The two women had been visiting friends when they got into an argument on the drive home. That's when Mendoza told police she "lost it," pulling a knife from her pocket and stabbing Baird in the face, neck and chest as she sat in the passenger seat.
Mendoza, 23, was sentenced Tuesday to 16 years to life in prison.
Baird's family members described the women as volatile yet inseparable Tuesday as they pleaded with other families to be aware of the dangers of domestic violence.
Baird's aunt, Holly Hansen, had visited with the two women just days before the Oct. 18, 2014 murder. She recalled hugging an excited Mendoza, who had become like family, as she congratulated her on her new job. However, Hansen said she noticed a telling look that passed between Mendoza and Baird when she asked Baird about a tooth that had been suspiciously chipped a few months earlier.
"It was a look that I wish I had done something about," Hansen recalled. "You need to report this stuff — we all do."
The two women had lived with Baird's mother, Dana Gunn. They would fight, Gunn recalled Tuesday, but it never seemed to be anything more than "girls fighting" and was always followed by the two making up. She now regrets helping the two cover up the fact that it was Mendoza who had damaged Baird's tooth, believing the two had resolved the issues between them.
"That's one thing I really, really regret," Gunn said. "I should have seen that as the main sign that she was capable of doing much worse."
As they asked the judge for a maximum prison sentence, family members said they had come to care for Mendoza as one of their own, despite their reservations about her.
"We have love for her, which is why it's so confusing that she did this to our whole family," said Liana Anderson, Baird's grandmother.
As she sat shackled and listening to the remarks, Mendoza hung her head low to the table and hid her face in her long dark hair. At moments her shoulders would shake, as if she was weeping, but Gunn questioned that emotion Tuesday.
"She's never looked at me, I've never seen her cry or seem sad or anything," Gunn said. "That bothers me because we took her in and treated her like a family member."
More than a year after the killing, Casey Baird said the violence of his daughter's death still haunts him.
"My whole life stopped," he said. "Forty-six times she stabbed her, nonstop, very fast, very violent."
After going through an emotional preliminary hearing earlier in the year, Mendoza pleaded guilty against her attorney's advice last month. While he is grateful the case did not advance to trial, Casey Baird believes the woman he viewed as his "other daughter" isn't truly sorry for what she did.
"I wish she had gotten this over with sooner. All of those court hearings I had to come to, what does that do to a dad?" he asked. "I don't think she's remorseful, I think she believes Tawnee has forgiven her."
As he left the courtroom, Casey Baird also emphasized the need to talk honestly with family members and report even suspicions of domestic violence, noting that he never believed his daughter's girlfriend of five years could have been capable of killing her.
"Anything is possible in domestic violence," he said. "It could be a gun, it could be a knife, it could be anybody. … To parents, don't take this lightly. It's deadly."
Help for people in abusive relationships can be found by contacting the YWCA, Women in Jeopardy, 801-537-8600, or the Domestic Violence Hotline, 1-800-897-LINK (5465).
Email: mromero@deseretnews.com
Twitter: McKenzieRomero