The Murder of Maria Flores

Episode # 77 Maria Flores

Episode description: Maria Flores planned a brave escape from domestic violence, but tragedy struck, devastating her family forever. 

[Shaun]

Screaming and the sound of gunshots broke the silence early in the morning of June 1st, 2013, on Cotton St in East Las Vegas, shocking Manuel Mata's daughter awake. 

Who was that screaming? Did she just hear 3 gunshots, or was it 4? Terrified, she locked her bedroom door and hid in the closet, and called the first person she thought of, her grandfather

[John]

She told him she’d heard gunfire in the house and didn't know what to do.

In a panic over his family’s safety, he went to the house that his son Manuel shared with his girlfriend Maria Flores. What he found would change their lives forever.

(Music - Pause for 8 seconds)

[Shaun] 

Hi, and welcome to Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast, where we focus on cases that deal with domestic violence, as well as missing persons and unsolved cases. I’m your host, Shaun.

[John] 

And I’m your co-host, John

[Shaun] 

We’ve talked a few times about the great recession, which lasted from late 2007 into mid-2009, and how it had a huge impact here in Nevada. During that time, we saw sky-high (actually nation-leading) unemployment and a drastic increase in both gun and domestic violence.

We’ll talk about that and some related statistics in a bit, but first, let's get into today's case, which took place in the spring of 2013.

Maria Flores, a 43-year-old mother of 5 daughters had been dating 38-year-old Manuel Mata III for about 3 years. They lived together on the 5500 block of Cotton Street in east Las Vegas, along with two of Maria’s daughters, her 17-year-old that we’ll call Julie, and her 4-year-old that we’ll call Olivia, along with Manuel’s 18-year-old daughter

As always, we’re changing the names of all the minor children involved to protect their identities and privacy.

Julie recently finished her senior year in high school and was busy shopping for graduation dresses. After that, she was looking forward to pursuing her passion, a career in fashion design

According to several sources, including Maria’s friends, Maria and Manuel’s relationship was rocky and deteriorating fast. Manuel was becoming more and more angry and controlling, drinking more and more, and frighteningly, stockpiling firearms in their home. 

He also started becoming jealous and accusing Maria of cheating on him

Maria decided she needed to get out of the relationship and the house. She threatened to move in mid May, but Mata talked her into staying, but by the end of the month she’d had enough,

She told her friends about her plans to leave, but given his instability, she had to find the right time to leave. 

She got her opportunity after 10 pm on Friday, May 31st, when Mata left the house. 

She planned to get everything together and leave early Saturday morning.

While he was out, Mata sent her a text message that seemed ominous and pretty threatening, and seemed to show that he thought she still planned to leave him. 

It read “I’m never going to let you go. You’re stuck with me forever.” 

She wasn’t going to let it stop her, though. As soon as he was out the door, she started packing clothing and important items into suitcases for her and her two daughters and even took all the family photos off the walls. 

It seemed like she didn't want to risk coming back to get anything.

After she was done, everyone went to bed, planning to get up early the next day and go.

[John] 

When Mata went out on Friday night, Maria didn't know where he was going; she was just glad he was gone so she had a chance to get everything ready so that she and the kids could finally leave….but it turned out he didn't go far. 

He was seen drinking outside around 10:30, and later that night, between 2 and 3 am, his car was spotted still outside the house, and he was still nearby, drinking heavily.

When Mata walked back into their house after his night of drinking, between 5 and 6 am, Maria and the girls were in the middle of leaving, and he went ballistic. They started arguing, and it escalated quickly.

As we said before, Mata was a gun collector, and unfortunately he went right for his shotgun and according to the police report, went on a rampage.  

He shot Maria, then found 17-year-old Julie and shot her, and then he found little 4-year-old Olivia and shot her in the neck. 

When that was done, he turned the gun on himself shooting himself in the chin from below, attempting to die by suicide.

His own daughter (who, remember, also lived in the home) was awakened by the screaming and gunfire. From the way she described it, it's clear that she was hearing shotgun blasts. 

Not knowing what was happening, she locked her bedroom door, hid in her closet, and called her grandfather, Mata’s father, instead of calling 911, telling him she was hearing gunshots and didn't know what to do.

It must have been terrifying for her, not knowing what was going on, hearing those gunshots downstairs, then silence.

Mata’s father sped over to the house right around 6am and when he arrived she finally left her bedroom and on her way out of the house she saw the horrific and tragic scene. 

She saw Maria and her father on the floor covered in blood. It was then that her grandfather finally called Las Vegas Metro, right around 6:12 am. 

When they arrived with paramedics, they saw right away that Maria and Julie were both gone but somehow, miraculously, Olivia had survived and was rushed to UMC Trauma and fell into a coma.

[Shaun]

Incredibly, Manuel survived his self-inflicted shotgun blast to the face, and was also rushed to the hospital for emergency trauma surgery.

He was booked in absentia that same day and charged with two counts of murder with a deadly weapon, attempted murder, and battery.

As the police began their investigation, it didn't get any better for Mata. They found 41 grams of cocaine in the home and determined that the 12 gauge shotgun used was stolen, along with several other firearms they found in the home. 

When they counted them all up, there were 13 guns recovered from the home and 3 of them were allegedly stolen

It was members of Maria’s family that told detectives that Mata had been having serious financial problems and had started drinking heavily in the last months leading up to the murders and was getting more and more erratic and unstable.

In Spring of 2013 Maria and Julie were laid to rest on the very day that Olivia came out of her coma. She had her childhood stolen.. and according to her aunt, she still struggles with memory loss, self expression, comprehension, and anxiety, and has trouble with her balance.

[John]

Mata’s murder trial finally began after a nearly 6-years later on November 6th, 2019, and lasted less than two weeks. He faced two counts of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon, attempted murder with the use of a deadly weapon, trafficking in a controlled substance, and 3 counts of possession of a stolen firearm.

Mata’s defense was centered around his complete and pretty implausible denial of having anything to do with the murders.

His account of what happened that day was that some unknown intruders came into their home while he was outside drinking, shot Maria, Julie, and Olivia, then left. 

According to him, Maria and Julie were already dead when he came back into the house.

His defense team admitted that he shot himself, but they claimed that it was because he was so overcome with grief after finding Maria and Julie that he couldn't live with it.

There are a lot of problems with his story. We know he was nearby all night, and there was no explanation about how it was possible that if an intruder had been responsible that he hadn't heard the gunshots, there were also no signs of forced entry and no evidence of any intruders at all. 

There’s also the question about ballistics. Maria and the girls were shot with the same shotgun that Manuel “owned”... so did this intruder go and find theweapon, shoot everyone, and then just leave the weapon? Nothing about it adds up.

His daughter’s testimony seemed to support a version of his story, but the problem was that her testimony changed a lot between what she initially told the police and what she said in the trial under oath.

Initially, she told police that she heard screaming and then several gunshots, but later she changed that and said that the first thing she heard was the gunshots. 

She also said in her revised story that she heard the gunshots, then looked out of her bedroom window and saw her father walking into the house, and then heard “the final gunshot”, which seemed to support Manuel’s story.

The prosecutor pressed her on that one, asking if she was changing her testimony to make it seem like her father might be innocent, which she denied. 

[Shaun]

It’s also totally possible that her memories were fuzzy after 6 years, and of course, it was an incredibly traumatic thing and likely quite hard to remember clearly, but she did admit that her story had changed.

She also went back and forth on whether the house was locked. Initially, she said it was, but later said it wasn't. When pressed, she just said, “It might have been locked, I don't know.” That’s another thing that would have been a little strange.. Its not clear why they would have left the house unlocked overnight.

The prosecution (led by Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo) portrayed Mata as increasingly angry and controlling in the relationship, which was corroborated by witnesses that Maria spoke to about her relationship. 

Of course, they were trying to convince the Jury that it was Mata who murdered Maria and Julie and seriously wounded Maria’s 4-year-old which was the obvious and likeliest version of what happened.

They also brought up Mata’s criminal past, which includes a long history of abusing and threatening domestic partners going all the way back to the 90s. 

In the words of the prosecutor, “Mata has a very lengthy history of violence against women that almost always includes a threat to kill them”.

According to testimony, he told one of his ex-wives, “I promise you will die. I only have to pick up the phone, and my hands will be clean. The lake is very big, and they will never find you”.

[John]

Yeah, that's pretty terrifying stuff.

[Shaun]

Like you said, the trial was fairly short, and the jury took about 4 days to come to a verdict.

Mata was found guilty of

• Second-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon for Maria’s Murder
• First-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon for the murder of her daughter Julie
• Attempted Murder with the use a deadly weapon for the shooting of Olivia
• Child abuse, neglect, or endangerment with substantial bodily harm
• And trafficking in a controlled substance.

Somehow, the prosecution couldn't prove the charge of the stolen weapons but it hardly mattered given the other charges he was found guilty of.

[John]

Next up was the penalty phase, and the state decided to try and get the death penalty for Mata, given the horrific nature of his crimes. 

The same jury that found him guilty had to decide if he would get decades of prison time, or a death sentence.

The prosecution urged the jury to give him the death penalty. They said “Today is your chance to tell Mr Mata what justice is, for a mother lost, a daughter lost, a companion and a friend”. 

Marc DiGiacomo argued that there was no mitigation in this case for someone who committed such a heinous act, killing two people, including a young girl, and shooting a 4-year-old in the neck.

Mata’s defense team leaned hard into his time in the military, serving in Afghanistan for 8 months, and brought up the idea of an intruder being responsible for the murders.

Family members spoke up for him including his daughter, and they actually said “Mata had a strong work ethic and love for his family”. 

They also said that if he were given a long prison sentence they would stay in contact with him. The defense team told the jury “death isnt necessary. Choose life”

We’ll talk a bit more about the death penalty in general, and some of these arguments in our Swing Shift overtime episode right after this. 

If you want to hear that, head over to sinspod.co/subscribe and join the patreon, or sign up on Apple Podcasts, and youll get all the bonus episodes for only $3.99 a month.

[Shaun]

The jury came back in 4 days, and he avoided the death penalty. One juror had written in a mitigating factor that said “see the good in people and forgive”

Mata did end up getting a very long sentence including multiple decades of time on top of a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Its a long list, but the net effect is that he will spend the rest of his life in prison, however long that is.

We didnt mention this before, but although he survived his suicide attempt, his face was left permanently disfigured.

We wanted to take a few minutes and talk about the gun violence statistics at the time.

The domestic violence rates in Nevada are part of the reason we started doing this podcast, but there is an undeniable link between domestic violence and gun violence. 

From 2003 to 2012, Nevada ranked 21st among US states for gun murders, and the rate was actually below the national average, according to the Center for American Progress.

For that same timeframe, Nevada ranked eighth for the highest rates of gun murders of women, which was 38% higher than the national average.

Not only that, but in 2012, Nevada ranked first in the nation for domestic violence killings in a report from the Violence Policy Center. The rate there was 2.62 in 100,000 people. 

South Carolina was a distant second with 1.94 per 100,000 people. There was also an uptick in domestic violence homicides and murder suicides around that same time. 

[John]

All of those are statistics from during the economic downturn that started around 2008, and hit Las Vegas particularly hard. We’ve mentioned before that Las Vegas got hit harder in that recession because of our reliance on tourism and took a lot longer to recover than most of the country.

Unemployment peaked at 14.5% here, much worse than anywhere else.

Unfortunately though, the rates of violence outlasted the high unemployment rate, and Nevada has consistently been in the top 10 for rates for women being killed by men, and in 2024, it ranked #2 in the nation for rates of domestic violence. 

More than half of those deaths are a result of gun violence. The rates of gun violence in general are higher here too, with 18.4 deaths per 100,00 compared to 13.7, the national average. 

We have to acknowledge that these things are related, and there’s clear pattern. Without acknowledging that, there’s no way to solve the problem

Every week we share resources in our show notes you can use if you or someone you know is in an abusive relationship and we encourage you to get help no matter where you are because

What happens here happens everywhere.