Man is wanted in killing of estranged wife

STAFF WRITER

Ninfa Griselda Mancillas-Zuniga was supposed to pick her daughter up from school on Monday.

When the mom didn’t show, another adult went instead. They got back to the family’s home that day, and the girl found her 40year-old mother dead on the floor of her southeast Houston residence, according to court records.

“My dad killed my mom, and the gun is on the table,” the girl yelled.

Police are looking for the girl’s father, who is wanted in the slaying of his estranged wife. Jose Angel Martinez Espinosa, 45, has been charged with Mancillas-Zuniga’s murder and is still at large.

Police found Mancillas-Zuniga shot to death in the front room of her house, in the 8100 block of Ogden Street, around 4:40 p.m., according to Harris County District Clerk records. She had multiple gunshot wounds, and police found 9 mm casings on the scene as well as a black Sig Sauer handgun on the dining room table.

Mancillas-Zuniga’s landlord told investigators that the woman and her estranged husband, Martinez Espinosa, had been having issues. The couple lived at the home for the past four years, but the landlord evicted Martinez Espinosa on Nov. 5, days after she signed a new lease agreement with Mancillas-Zuniga because of the marital issues, police said.

Surveillance cameras showed that the day of the murder, Mancillas-Zuniga left her home to drop her daughter off at school and run errands. She parked in her driveway at 10:12 a.m., and just two minutes later, a man on a bicycle stopped near the residence and hopped a fence, court records show.

A neighbor told police she heard a bang around 10:15 a.m., and the same man was seen on video hurriedly leaving the residence at 10:18 a.m., police said.

The crime was reported in the afternoon, when the daughter arrived home, police said. Another parent at the school gave her a lift, and they saw the bloody scene after opening the front door.

Both the landlord and the suspect’s other daughter said they recognized the man on the bike as Martinez Espinosa, police said. The landlord also said she physically saw Martinez Espinosa hop the fence, and the husband of the neighbor who heard a bang said he saw Martinez Espinosa in the Mancillas-Zuniga’s backyard at 6 a.m. earlier that day.

The other daughter told investigators that “her father told her mother (the decedent) that he would kill her if he ever found her with another man),” according to records.

Martinez Espinosa is described as 5 feet 5 inches tall with a skinny build, police said. He’s believed be driving a black 2006 Nissan Altima with paper license plates. His hair is thought to be shorter than it appears in the photo provided by police. It’s possible the suspect will flee or has already fled to Mexico, police said.

Anyone with information is asked to call the HPD Homicide Division at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.