A 19-year-old Reading man has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a 24-year-old city woman in June 2023 when he was nine days shy of his 18th birthday.
Henry Mendoza entered his plea before Berks County Judge Patrick T. Barrett on Thursday, four days before Mendoza’s trial in the killing of Natalie Classen was scheduled to begin.
After hearing sentence recommendations from both sides, Barrett handed down a sentence of 45 years to life in state prison.
It was the second time in six months that Mendoza appeared in Barrett’s courtroom to enter a plea in the murder case. In June, he surprised and angered prosecutors and the victim’s family, including her fiancé who traveled from Texas, by changing his mind and telling the judge he wanted to stand trial.
According to prosecutors:
At about 2:30 a.m. on June 15, 2023, Classen was walking home with several friends after a night out in Reading. When the group approached the intersection of 10th and Greenwich streets, a verbal altercation erupted between them and another group, made up of juveniles who were gathered in the area of Mendoza’s residence in the 1000 block of Greenwich.
Shortly after the encounter began, Mendoza rushed toward Classen and her friends, brandishing a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol, and shot Classen once in the lower left abdomen. Everyone fled and the mortally wounded Classen got into a taxi that took her to Reading Hospital, where she died a short time later.
Investigators located the gun the following day in the basement of Mendoza’s residence.
Four days before the fatal shooting, Mendoza used the same gun in a drive-by shooting a few blocks away.
In that shooting about 11:30 p.m. on June 11, 2023, Mendoza shot Xavier Rivera, 24, and Jaiden DeJesus, 16, both of Reading, while he was a passenger in a vehicle driven by his co-defendant, Bonef Hassel, 46, of Reading,
Both victims suffered serious, but non-fatal, injuries.
Mendoza was convicted on Nov. 20 by a jury on two counts of attempted murder, two counts of conspiracy to commit murder and related firearms offenses in a drive-by shooting in the area of 13th and Green streets.
Sentencing in the drive-by shooting is scheduled for January before President Judge M. Theresa Johnson.
Hassel faces similar charges. He’s being held in the county jail in lieu of $1 million bail.
Both cases were investigated by Criminal Investigator Steve Valdez of the Reading Police Department and prosecuted by Berks County Assistant District Attorney Daniel P. Troy.
Source: Berkshire mont
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