A Bensalem man will spend at least five years in state prison, then faces deportation after a fistfight turned fatal outside a Bensalem apartment complex nearly two years ago.
In a court appearance Feb. 5, Abel Mendoza-Ramirez admitted he shot and killed Jose Miguel Tenorio-Ruiz, 40, who also lived at the Bucks Meadows apartments in July 2024.
Bucks County Common Pleas Judge Charissa Liller accepted Mendoza-Ramirez’s plea to third-degree murder, and sentenced him to 6 to 15 years in state prison.
A Bensalem resident had admitted to fatally shooting a neighbor in 2024 after a fist fight
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Liller ordered he could be paroled after serving his minimum, if he has no misconducts while incarcerated.
The judge also granted Mendoza-Ramirez time served credit since his July 2024 arrest, which reduced the length of his state sentence, and also ordered no contact with the victim’s family or witnesses and a mental health evaluation.
Under the negotiated plea, the remaining charges against Mendoza-Ramirez were dropped including first-degree murder.
Bensalem police allege that Mendoza-Ramirez andTenorio-Ruiz, who knew each other, were involved in a fistfight on July 6, 2024 outside the Knights Road complex where they both lived.
After Mendoza-Ramirez, who police believe lost the fight, retrieved a semi-automatic handgun from the car. He approached Tenorio-Ruiz and the two men argued.
Mendoza-Ramirez then pulled the gun from his waistband and fired two rounds into the ground near Tenorio-Ruiz, who then attempted to grab the gun away from Mendoza-Ramirez, police said.
During the struggle the gun fired, striking Tenorio-Ruiz in the torso, fatally wounding him, police said. After shooting the victim, witnesses told police that Mendoza-Ramirez fled the scene in a Ford van, according to the release.
About an hour later, a Newtown Township police officer stopped the van and took Mendoza-Ramirez into custody, police said.
After Mendoza-Ramirez is released from state prison, Liller ordered that he be deported to Mexico, since he is in the U.S. without legal status.
After his arrest, Bensalem police said that Mendoza-Ramirez was detained and incarcerated briefly in 2016 for illegally entering the U.S. but later released; but it is unclear if Mendoza-Ramirez was released in Mexico or the U.S.
Reporter Jo Ciavaglia can be reached at jciavaglia@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Bensalem man convicted of murder faces deportation upon parole