TEXARKANA, Texas–A 19-year-old who told police last year that he murdered his mother, father, younger brother and adult sister because he thought they were cannibals, was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison plus 50 years as part of a plea agreement that spared the surviving family members the trauma of a trial.
Cesar Olalde was just days from graduating from high school on May 23, 2023, when he shot and killed four family members and piled their lifeless bodies in a bathroom of their home in the 500 block of Lemon Acres in Nash, Texas, according to a probable cause affidavit. Olalde had said after the killings that he thought his family members were “cannibals and that they were going to eat him,” the affidavit said.
First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp told TXK Today on Tuesday that, “Understandably, the surviving member of the Olalde family elected to accept the defendant’s offer to plead to life in prison plus 50 years in order to close this devastating chapter in her life.”
“The Olalde family have long been members of a religion that generally does not endorse or condone the death penalty,” Crisp said. “Even before the mental health experts were split on the issue of the defendant’s competency to stand trial, Ms. Olalde’s wishes were that the State not seek death against this defendant.”
Crisp added, “In this case, and whenever possible, the District Attorney’s office is guided by the wishes of the victim’s family in executing a balance of considerations for justice. With his waiver of all rights to appeal, including the right to appeal any potential mental health issues, the outcome of these cases are final.”
Olalde was initially charged with capital murder involving the deaths of multiple persons and capital murder of a person under 10 years of age.
Olalde pleaded guilty on Tuesday to multiple crimes, including two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of aggravated assault and a single count of injury to a child, at a hearing before 202nd District Judge John Tidwell in a first-floor courtroom of the Bi-State Justice Building in downtown Texarkana.
Tidwell ordered Olalde to serve two, concurrent life sentences for each count of murder. The aggravated assault charges involve people who were threatened at gunpoint by Cesar Olalde when they went to the home to check on the family.
The injury to a child count involved the first of two rounds that struck Cesar Olalde’s younger brother, court records show. Judge Tidwell ordered that each of two 20-year terms for aggravated assault and a 10-year term for injury to a child be served consecutively to the life sentences and one after the other, for a total sentence of life in prison plus 50 years.
Court records have identified the victims as mother Aida Garcia-Mendoza, father Reuben Olalde, adult sister Lisbet Olalde and younger brother, 6-year-old Oliver Olalde.
Cesar Olalde has been in custody since the day of the mass shooting and will remain in the Bowie County jail until he is transported to a unit of the Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice. Cesar Olalde’s mental status and questions surrounding his competency to proceed to trial led to multiple mental health evaluations in the case.
In a court filing earlier this year, Cesar Olalde’s defense attorney, Jeff Harrelson of Texarkana, indicated that at least one expert had deemed Cesar Olalde too mentally ill to face a jury. While Olalde had been found competent in a subsequent evaluation by a different expert, the issue would likely have been raised on appeal had he been found guilty at trial.
Harrelson could not immediately be reached Tuesday for comment.
