A Tucson man once facing a second-degree murder charge has instead pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the fatal shooting of 45-year-old Fred Sanchez outside the Hideout Bar. Benjamin Alberto Mendoza Jr. also pleaded guilty to a separate unlawful imprisonment charge stemming from an incident that happened while he was in custody, and he is set to be sentenced on both counts.
According to KOLD 13 News, Mendoza had been facing a second-degree murder charge before the plea deal was reached. Police said Mendoza shot Sanchez and another man during a fight outside the bar; Sanchez died at a local hospital, while the other man survived, the station reported. Mendoza turned himself in to police about a month after the shooting, according to the same account.
The shooting happened outside the Hideout Bar at 3000 South Mission Road, according to tucson.com, which placed the location north of West Ajo Way. KOLD's reporting on the shooting listed Mendoza's age as 24 at the time police said he opened fire, though a separate KOLD report on his arrest described him as 23 years old — a discrepancy that remains unresolved in the available reporting.
A Jailhouse Charge Added to the Case
Beyond the manslaughter plea, Mendoza also pleaded guilty to unlawful imprisonment connected to a 2026 incident that occurred while he was already in custody, the station's report notes. Court documents described Mendoza grabbing another inmate’s crotch and being charged with assault. Mendoza is scheduled to be sentenced on both charges at 3 p.m. on Dec. 7.
Under Arizona law, manslaughter can involve recklessly causing another person's death, or committing what would otherwise be second-degree murder during a sudden quarrel or heat of passion following adequate provocation from the victim, according to the Arizona Legislature. The statute offers a legal framework for how a second-degree murder charge can ultimately resolve into a lesser plea.
A Bar With a Violent History
The Hideout Bar was no stranger to gunfire before Sanchez's death. In January 2025, four people were shot during a fight at the same location, and all four survived, per the same account from the fatal shooting case. Police arrested 36-year-old Peter Acuna in connection with that shooting, charging him with one count of aggravated assault, the station reported at the time.
By the following spring, the bar's troubled run had caught up with it. The business said the building at 3000 South Mission Road had been sold, and the report noted there were two shootings at the location in the span of a single year, according to a separate KOLD report on the bar's closure.
Part of a Broader Pattern in Tucson Courts
Mendoza's plea is not an isolated case moving through Pima County's courts this fall. Days earlier, Michael Francisco pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the fatal stabbing of 44-year-old Enrique Mercado on Tucson's Loop multi-use path, as KOLD reported separately. In another case, a 21-year-old Tucson man was sentenced to six years in a manslaughter case tied to the shooting death of a 23-year-old man, according to tucson.com.
Citywide, Tucson recorded 54 homicides in 2025, according to year-end data from the Tucson Police Department cited by AZPM. The department has said it is working to make more of its internal data available to the public to inform broader conversations about policing in the city, per its own online data portal.
