DNA links convict to 1995 slaying

By DEANNA BOYD

FORT WORTH — A convicted felon charged with the 1986 rape and strangulation of a 11-year-old girl now faces a second charge of capital murder after a DNA database linked him to the 1995 slaying of a woman in Buck Sansom Park.

This week, Fort Worth police obtained an arrest warrant for Juan Mesa Segundo, 42, in connection with the sexual assault and strangulation of Maria Reyna Navarro, 32, a mother of three whose body was found on June 17, 1995.

Cold case Detective Manny Reyes said a DNA profile extracted from semen taken from Navarro’s body matched Segundo.

Segundo remained in Tarrant County Jail Friday, where he has been held since April on $300,000 bail awaiting trial for the August 1986 slaying of Vanessa Villa. He was charged with capital murder for the crime after the same database, called the Combined DNA Index System, linked his DNA profile to evidence taken from the girl’s body.

Reyes said police are re-examining the slayings of four other women killed in a similar fashion between the years of 1986 and 1995 for possible links to Segundo.

“We are definitely not done with Juan Segundo,” Reyes said.

Mark Daniel, Segundo’s attorney, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Segundo had previously served stints in prison for two crimes that also targeted women between the years of Vanessa’s death and the discovery of Navarro’s body. He also served five years for a conviction of driving while intoxicated and was paroled in 2000.

Navarro’s family celebrated the news of a break in the decade old slaying.

“My sister was very outgoing. She was very trusting,” said Claudia Soliz-Lara, Navarro’s sister. “The same question always came up. Why would someone do this to her? Why her?”

At the time of her death, Navarro was residing in Corpus Christi but had come to Fort Worth to visit some friends.

Her oldest children, Marcus, 15, and Christina 14, were living with their paternal grandmother at the time. The youngest child, 11-year-old Cruz, was left in the care of Soliz-Lara while Navarro was away.

Soliz-Lara said she last talked to her sister on the morning of June 16.

“The last call we got from her was she was on her way home and we never heard anything again,” Soliz-Lara said in a telephone interview from her Corpus Christi home Friday.

The next morning, two young children attending a picnic at Buck Sansom Park found Navarro’s partially nude body. She had been struck in the head and had been strangled, Reyes said.

Soliz-Lara said she quickly grew concerned when her sister never arrived to pick up her son.

“She wouldn’t leave him for anything,” Soliz-Lara said. “It wasn’t like her not to come back to her son.”

Navarro’s death came almost exactly a year after the slaying of her ex-husband — the father of her three children.

“They hadn’t even finished grieving for him yet when their mother was taken also,” Soliz-Lara said.

Because the family was not financially prepared for Navarro’s sudden death, the woman was buried in Robstown, near Corpus Christi, by the state. There is no headstone marking her grave.

The two older children continued living with their paternal grandmother. Navarro’s mother, Nina Carrejo, took in her youngest grandson.

The children now have children of their own. If alive today, Navarro would be a grandmother of six, her sister said.

Soliz-Lara said that she was relieved an arrest has been made in the case and the family’s hearts go out to Vanessa’s family.

“Our sister was older. We had more time with her,” Soliz-Lara said. “This little girl, her family hardly had any time.”

Vanessa’s mother, brother and baby sister had left the house for 30 minutes late on Aug. 3, 1986 to run an errand when police believe her attacker entered the family’s north Fort Worth home through Vanessa’s bedroom, struggling with the girl as her three young cousins slept unaware in a nearby room.

Vanessa’s mother arrived home to find her daughter’s motionless body on the bed. The girl was pronounced dead later at a local hospital.

Segundo, a one-time friend of the Villa family, attended the girl’s wake days later with his wife. The guest book has “Mr. & Mrs. Segundo” written on the fifth line.

Prosecutor Alan Levy of the Tarrant County District Attorney’s office said they are seeking the maximum punishment.

“Right now we have tentatively slated it for a death penalty case,” he said.

On Friday, Vanessa’s mother, Rosa Maria Clarke, said that she does not want Segundo to die, but rather spend his life behind bars.

“She said that it’s harder for him to stay inside forever than just to kill him,” said Pedro Perez, 17, who translated for his Spanish-speaking mother. “If they kill him, nothing’s going to hurt him. He’s dead. She prefers him to stay in jail for forever.”

Segundo has been in and out of trouble with the law for years, mainly for crimes targeting women.

In June 1988, Segundo received a 10-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to a charge of burglary of a habitation. A 40-year-old woman told police that she awoke feeling someone touching her and turned on the light to find a man kneeling beside her bed with his pants and underwear pulled down.

Segundo, who fled after being recognized by the victim’s daughter, had apparently entered the home through a broken window, police said.

Segundo was paroled in July 1989 but was incarcerated again in 1991 after being convicted of misdemeanor burglary for a similar attack in 1990.

In that case, police say, a completely unclothed Segundo entered an acquaintance’s apartment through a window and then choked her when she woke up. The woman, who recognized Segundo because he had dated several neighbors, jumped out of a second-story window to escape, police said.

He was paroled in January 1993 but returned to prison in September 1995 after receiving a five-year sentence for driving while intoxicated.

He was released on mandatory supervision in June 2000 and discharged from parole a month later.

Jesus Garcia, Segundo’s step-brother, learned about the latest allegations against his brother Friday from a Star-Telegram reporter and said he was “caught off guard.”

Garcia said he last talked to Segundo about three weeks after his arrest in Vanessa’s slaying when he went to see him in jail.

“I went over to talk to him,” Garcia said. “He said he didn’t do it.”

Garcia said he hoped the accusations against his step-brother are a mistake.

Soliz-Lara said she’s glad to finally have the name of the man who police believe killed her sister.

“He probably doesn’t even remember who she was,” she said. “We’ll always remember who he is.”