True Crime: Travesty of Justice for Austin Serial Killer Continues

2019 victim’s family pleads against another plea bargain for this Austin Serial Killer.

Some past background: Maybe one reason for no progress on the Rainey Street killer(s) is a past “Travesty of Justice” right here in Austin. The system was manipulated and a serial killer plea bargained his way out of a system that should have given him a life sentence for the 1982 rape and murder of and 8-year-old here in Austin. Her body was left in a dumpster outside Langford Elementary School. After a recent murder Raul Meza Jr. was finally apprehended in 2023. That same lackluster, soft on crime attitude and denial of criminal conduct seems to persist in present day Austin, Texas.

And now another family pleads against making the same mistake and offering another plea bargain for Meza. 

2024

“Family of Gloria Lofton asking Travis Co. DA to not accept plea deal from Raul Meza,” — “Just weeks after a judge denied a possible plea deal for suspected “serial killer” Raul Meza, the family of one victim is asking the Travis County District Attorney’s Office to not accept a plea deal from him.

The family of Gloria Lofton said in a news release the Travis County District Attorney’s Office was not responding to their requests. In that release, the family said they wanted to know why they were being kept “in the dark.” They said they want this case to go to a jury trial. KXAN’s Erica Pauda  

In August 2024 KXAN reported how a judge rejected an offer, because it gave Meza the chance at parole. Meza, who already served time for killing a little girl in 1982, now faces charges in the murder of Jesse Fraga in 2023. Meza implicated himself in the death of Lofton, who was killed in 2019. 

Lofton’s family said in the release Meza’s next plea deal “should include nothing less than accepting the death penalty.” 

KXAN reached out to the Travis County DA’s office and it declined to comment.” KXAN

The family of Gloria Lofton, who died in 2019 have already been through enough:

AUSTIN (KXAN) – In 2019, days after her mother – Gloria Lofton – died, Sonia Houston said Austin Police handed the keys to her late mother’s house and was told nothing about what she would find inside.

“They released the house to me with blood splattered down the hallway. They released the house to me in what was a crime scene,” Houston said. “That’s the house I grew up in. That’s my mother,” she continued. 

“I wasn’t prepared for it, nor did they even have the decency to say to me, Miss Houston, you’re going to walk into something we don’t know if you’re prepared for,” she continued. 

According to court documents, police found Lofton’s body in her bedroom in 2019. DNA testing was conducted on Lofton’s body, which tested positive for male DNA, according to the affidavit. The final medical examiner report on July 30, 2019, reported that based on observations of Lofton’s body, it is possible that Lofton had been strangled, per the affidavit.

Almost a year following Lofton’s death, a DNA match was obtained, identifying the person as Raul Meza Jr., according to the police documents. 

Then on May 24, Austin police received a 311 call from Meza where he admitted to killing his roommate – 80-year-old Jessee Fraga – and implicated himself in Lofton’s murder, per the affidavit. 

Once Police connected Meza with Lofton’s death, they contacted Houston. But still, Houston wishes Police would have been more communicative throughout the entire investigation. 

“It’s 2023, and I’m just now finding out this information. So the lack of them keeping in contact with me, as a part of the victim’s family, as I am the victim. They dropped the ball,” Houston said. 

2023: Arrest, Confession, and Suspicious Bag

May: 2023 — A man suspected of killing multiple people over the course of more than 40 years was arrested by the Austin Police Department, and they're calling him a "serial killer." Raul Meza Jr., 62, confessed to the fatal stabbing of his 80-year-old roommate in Pflugerville and was later connected to the death of other locals.

According to police, Meza made another admission of guilt days later, saying he killed a woman several years back. Police discovered the 2019 strangulation murder of 66-year-old Gloria Lofton was what Meza described to them as it was the “one case that met the parameters.” Later, DNA tied Meza to Lofton’s death.

According to APD’s Det. Patrick Reed, when Meza was captured in 2023, he had a bag with him that held very suspicious items. It contained duct tape, zip ties, a firearm and additional rounds of ammunition — which led police to assume that Meza was likely planning to kill again

1975: Brutal Crime and the Travesty of Justice

Police said Meza’s violent criminal history goes far back. In 1975, he wounded a man during an armed robbery. Nearly a decade later, in 1982, he raped and murdered 8-year-old Kendra Page, whose body was left in a dumpster outside Langford Elementary School. Meza was sentenced to 30 years in prison as part of a plea deal, but he only served 11 years for “good behavior.”

Meza’s early release came as a shock to then-Austin Assistant Police Chief Bruce Mills, who’s now the interim assistant city manager. Many believed Meza deserved a life sentence for what he did, so for him to just serve 11 years was “unprecedented," according to Mills. Mills said he remembers the case like it was yesterday, referring to it as a “travesty of justice” in Tuesday’s press conference.

In 1994, after Meza violated his parole, he was arrested. And for the next two decades, he stayed in and out of prison and on and off parole.

“We don’t know how many more people he killed or would’ve killed… Somebody made a bad decision 40, 41 years ago and let this guy, for whatever reason, manipulate the system and justice was not served,” Mills stated. 

Meza verified police’s belief when he told them he was “prepared to kill again and looking forward to it –Antoinette Odom

Let us hope that justice is finally served. –Kathy Borich