Two Camden men were convicted of murder and related crimes Monday in the shooting death of Philadelphia Police Officer Richard Mendez at the airport in 2023.
Yobranny Martinez-Fernandez, 20, who fired the fatal shots, was found guilty of first-degree murder. Hendrick Pena-Fernandez, 23, was convicted of second-degree murder because he took part in the car theft that gave rise to the fatal shooting.
Both men face a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Mendez, 50, was killed after he and his partner, Raul Ortiz, tried stop a car theft in progress in garage D at the Philadelphia International Airport. As they approached the Dodge Charger, Martinez-Fernandez opened fire as he crouched beneath the steering wheel, prosecutors said. Mendez was struck four times in the torso. Ortiz was struck once in the arm and survived his injuries.
Prosecutors said Martinez-Fernandez also unintentionally shot one of his accomplices, an 18-year-old man who later died at a nearby hospital. The men dropped him there during a frantic escape that eventually led them to a central New Jersey warehouse where prosecutors said they burned their getaway vehicle.
Throughout the nearly a week of testimony, prosecutors argued that both men were responsible the death of Mendez, a father of two and a 22-year veteran of the police force.
Assistant District Attorney Cydney Pope made a case that included cell tower data, surveillance footage, recovered DNA, and witnesses, including an accomplice to the crime who testified and implicated the two men. Taken together, Pope said, the evidence was compelling and linked the two men to the crime and its multi-state scene.
Defense attorneys maintained that Pope did not prove that their clients were at the scene of the shooting. And they told jurors they should not trust prosecutors’ star witness, a man who joined in the airport theft and who pleaded guilty to lesser charges in exchange for his testimony.
The trial took place amid an emotional atmosphere in the courtroom as dozens of police officers and department brass gathered to watch the proceedings, some offering comfort to Mendez’s widow and daughter. Alexandra Carrero and her daughter, Mia, were present throughout the trial, often sobbing.
They sat through the presentation of evidence that included life-size mannequins of Mendez, Ortiz, and the injured accomplice, Jesus Herman Madera Duran, all with markings noting where prosecutors said 9mm bullets tore through their bodies.
Prosecutors recreated the crime scene by playing video taken by drone cameras that depicted the maze of vehicles in the concrete parking area where the shooting place. They also offered testimony from two witnesses — weary travelers who were making their way to their cars — to recount the burst of gunfire, followed by the sound of squealing tires as the men peeled out of the garage, knocking down the security gate in the process.
Prosecutors also played an audio recording of Ortiz screaming into his radio, “Officer down!” and saying that he, too, had been struck and could no longer feel his arm.
“I’m gonna faint,” he said, “I’m losing feeling.”
“They shot Rich,” he repeated throughout the call, his voice wavering in disbelief.
At the time, Mendez was the third Philadelphia officer to be killed in the line of duty since 2015. A fourth, Officer Jaime Roman, was shot in the neck during a traffic stop in 2024.
Martinez-Fernandez and Pena-Fernandez declined to testify when asked by Common Pleas Court Judge Giovanni O. Campbell whether they would like to do so. And the defense presented no witnesses of testimony.
But on cross-examination of witnesses called by prosecutors, their attorneys, Robert Gamburg and Earl G. Kauffman, made clear that those who testified had heard — but not seen —the crime.
And Gamburg, who represented Pena-Fernandez, argued that his client was improperly charged with second-degree murder, a crime committed during the commission of another felony. In this case, he said, the attempted car theft was not a forceful or violent crime and should not have given rise to the more serious charge.
Gamburg told the jury Pena-Fernandez did not go out that night with the intent to kill a police officer, did not fire a weapon and had not known that Martinez-Fernandez was carrying a gun.
The trial was also marked by jury issues that left the courtroom on edge as deliberations stretched into a fourth day Monday.
The panel’s work was almost immediately derailed Wednesday afternoon when a juror had a medical emergency and was carried out on a stretcher. Campbell called in an alternate juror and ordered that deliberations begin anew.
Jurors appeared to be making progress Thursday as they repeatedly asked to review pieces of evidence. But Campbell later abruptly called jurors into court and told them they must approach the case with “courtesy and respect.”
No resolution came Friday, either. After nearly a full day of silence from jurors, Campbell announced that a second juror had been dismissed.
He did not explain why. And again, he ordered deliberations to start anew.