A Phoenix man was sentenced Tuesday to 30 years in prison for stalking and beating four homeless people with a hammer as they slept, killing one of them and leaving three others with permanent injuries. Mahrion Alexio Mendonca carried out the attacks in two separate incidents in September and October 2025, striking his victims in the head while they lay on the street.
According to Arizona's Family, a 74-year-old victim died in the hospital days after being beaten. The outlet reported that the first attack struck two victims near Central Avenue and Portland Street, north of Roosevelt Street, on September 29, 2025, while one of them was sleeping on the sidewalk. A second attack on October 1, 2025, targeted two more victims as they slept. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office confirmed Mendonca, born in June 1998, formally pleaded guilty in September 2026 to one count of second-degree murder and three counts of aggravated assault causing serious physical injury before Tuesday's sentencing, per records from the Maricopa County Attorney's Office.
Prosecutors said Mendonca circled the block before choosing his victims, according to the station's report. Three of the four people he attacked suffered permanent injuries, and one victim is now in a wheelchair and unable to speak, the report said.
Prosecutor Describes the Crime's Brutality
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said the violence of the attacks is difficult to put into words. “The brutality of this crime is difficult to overstate,” Mitchell said, per the same account. She noted that some of the victims were sleeping and did nothing to provoke the violence against them.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said the violence of the attacks is difficult to put into words. “The brutality of this crime is difficult to overstate,” Mitchell said, per the same account. She noted that some of the victims were sleeping and did nothing to provoke the violence against them. “One man lost his life in a brutal hammer attack, and three other victims were left with physical and psychological injuries they will have to live with for the rest of their lives,” Mitchell said, adding that the sentence holds Mendonca accountable for the harm he caused. The September 29 attack took place near Central Avenue and Portland Street, north of Roosevelt Street.
Arizona's Sentencing Framework
Under Arizona law, second-degree murder is a Class 1 felony — one of only two such classifications in the state along with first-degree murder — punishable by 10 to 29 years, according to the Salwin Law Group. DM Cantor gives a standard first-offense range of 10 to 25 years with a presumptive term of 16 years for second-degree murder. Aggravated assault causing serious physical injury with a dangerous instrument is classified as a Class 3 dangerous felony, which carries mandatory prison terms of 5 to 15 years per count for first-time offenders with no chance of probation, per the same source. Mendonca's 30-year sentence combined the murder count with the three assault convictions stemming from both attacks.
A Vulnerable Population Facing Rising Risk
The attacks unfolded as Maricopa County's unsheltered population was climbing sharply. Maricopa County's Point-in-Time count recorded 9,435 people experiencing homelessness in 2024; the 2025 count was 9,734, an approximately 3.2 percent increase, according to Phoenix Rescue Mission. A more recent January 2026 census found 9,726 people experiencing homelessness countywide, with 47 percent remaining unsheltered on streets and sidewalks even as sheltered bed capacity grew, KTAR News reported.
That exposure has carried a deadly cost. A separate annual evaluation by the medical examiner's office found that people experiencing homelessness die by homicide or accident at disproportionately higher rates than the broader county population, underscoring the physical exposure unsheltered residents face sleeping outdoors.
Part of a Pattern in Maricopa County Courts
Mendonca's sentence follows a string of lengthy prison terms Maricopa County prosecutors have secured against people who targeted unhoused victims. In April, Phoenix defendant Isaiah Baskin was sentenced to 38 years for second-degree murder and kidnapping in the 2023 beating death of an unhoused man near a downtown encampment, following a 42-year sentence for a co-defendant in the same case. In July 2025, Phoenix assailant Isaiah Adams was sentenced to 19 years after pleading guilty to multiple felony counts tied to a series of violent attacks against unhoused residents in the city, reflecting what local advocates describe as an ongoing public safety concern for people living unsheltered across the Valley.
