DALLAS (1080 KRLD)- A Dallas man has admitted he sawed a corpse into pieces then stored the victim's body in a freezer for months. Prosecutors are dropping a murder charge.
Marcelino Menchaca, 57, told police he found the body of Geoffrey Lea in a motel room, according to a police report. Menchaca admitted he used a saw to cut the body into pieces, then store the severed corpse in Lea's freezer for several months, the report said.
Menchaca pleaded guilty to a charge of tampering with evidence involving a corpse in exchange for a seven year prison term, records show.
The body parts were discovered by Menchaca's landlord, according to police. Menchaca admitted he had been using Lea's credit card.
Police initially charged Menchaca with murder, but defense attorney Austin Ortiz said while the crime is gruesome, there was no evidence to support a theory of murder.
"The law requires us to have certain evidence to be able to convict someone and in this case it didn't exist" said Ortiz.
