Andres has been locked up for more than 20 years for a crime he did not commit. There is strong evidence pointing to another killer, including a bloody palm print that was found at the crime scene that didn’t match Andres, the victim, or others who were known to be in the home. Additionally, Angel Resendiz, a known serial killer who was executed in Texas in 2006 for a different murder, confessed to killing Darryl Kolojaco to multiple people. His confession(s) are the subject of the acclaimed podcast Dead Man Talking.
Andres was born in Mexico in 1970, where he went to elementary school. At age 13, he began working in order to help support his family.
When he was 16 years old, Andres married Leticia Pena and they had three boys together. Andres, Jr. was born in 1987 while Andres was still just 16 years old. Leticia and Andres later welcomed sons Alejandro in 1989 and Alfredo in 1991.
With poor working conditions and limited opportunities in San Luis Potosi, Andres decided that he could better provide for his family by joining his brothers in Houston in 1995. Brothers Abraham, Dionicio and Eduardo welcome Andres to Houston and brought him onto their construction crew as a carpenter’s apprentice.
When not working, Andres spent time playing pickup soccer games with his brothers and spending time with them and their families.
Andres met Diamantina Salinas Kolojaco in 1997 and they began dating shortly after meeting.
They were both charged and convicted of killing Diamantina’s husband in 1999. Andres has steadfastly denied any involvement in the death of Darryl Kolojaco since his arrest in 1998.
In the early morning hours of June 13, 1998, 36-year-old Darryl Kolojaco was found beaten to death inside his Houston home with an unidentified instrument. Darryl shared the home with his wife, Diamantina Kolojaco, and his stepsons, 13-year-old Alex and 20-year-old Jose.
Both boys and Diamantina stated that they were away from the home when Darryl was killed and returned home to find his lifeless body in the living room floor in the early morning hours.
According to the Harris County Medical Examiner’s representative that testified in Andres’s trial, Darryl’s cause of death was multiple blows of blunt force trauma to the right side of his head.
The time of Darryl’s death was reported to have been 2:40 a.m., when the body was discovered. The Harris County Medical Examiner’s office acknowledged in Andres’s trial that the procedures used to determine time of death were not followed and the actual time of Darryl’s death was unknown.
Andres was in a romantic relationship with Diamantina at the time of the killing, and shared an apartment with his brother that both Diamantina and her sons would often spend time at.
Diamantina had shared with Andres that she believed her husband, Darryl, was bisexual after finding pornographic images on his computer of homosexual men engaged in sex acts. Fully believing that Darryl was in fact homosexual, Andres felt that Diamantina’s marriage to Darryl was not a traditional marriage and even spent time at the Kolojaco home many months before the murder occurred. Andres had shared Thanksgiving at the Kolojaco home with Darryl, Dimantina, Alex, and Jose in November of 1997.
When investigating officers made Diamantina and Andres the focus of their investigation, both denied having any role in the murder. When asked at the crime scene by investigating officers if she had any idea of who could have killed her husband, Diamantina stated that she believed Darryl led an “alternative lifestyle” that may have been some type of motive.
No physical evidence was ever found tying either Andres or Diamantina to the crime scene. Andres’s apartment and his vehicle were thoroughly examined and no physical evidence was ever found linking Andres to the crime scene.
Andres, without a full understanding of his rights, facing difficulties in language translation as well as a series of threats to his family and physical assaults to his body, confessed to a crime that he has for more than 20 years denied having involvement in.
Serial killer Angel Resendiz confessed to the killing of Darryl Kolojaco to numerous people before he was executed in 2006.
After Andres’s arrest on June 16, 1998, he remained incarcerated until his trial, which began on March 1, 1999. Andres was denied and/or prevented from attending numerous pretrial hearings and rulings.
The only physical evidence presented throughout the trial was a statement that was prepared by a Harris County Sheriff’s Homicide Detective, based on what Andres’s has steadfastly claimed was a false confession. Andres later explained that he confessed to the officers because he believed that any investigation would prove that he hadn’t done anything to harm Darryl Kolojaco.
The trial judge, Mike Anderson, had been a Felony Division Chief Prosecutor for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office when Andres and Diamantina were arrested and their charges of capital murder were submitted to the HCDA’s office for prosecution in June of 1998.
But in November 1998, Anderson was elected to preside over the 262nd District Court, and he took the bench in January of 1999.
The lead prosecutor in both Andres’s and Diamantina’s trials was a colleague of Anderson’s, Vic Wisner. Wisner had worked with Anderson at the HCDA’s office for more than 14 years, with both of them being hired by former HCDA, Johnny Holmes.
Both Andres’s and Diamantina’s cases ended up in Anderson’s courtroom. The two were tried separately — Andres in March of 1999 and Diamantina in July of 1999.
The only actual evidence presented by the prosecution were the signed statements from Andres and Diamantina. Both Andres and Diamantina have emphatically denied any truth to their statements with both alleging that their statements were coerced.
Andres’ defense team called a representative of the Mexican Consulate to testify to the fact that Harris County failed to contact the consulate as required by the Vienna Convention to advise them that Andres, a citizen of Mexico, had been arrested.
The HC Sheriff’s Department knew before they even arrested Andres that he was undocumented, as one of the Homicide Detectives investigating the case had ordered surveillance of Andres’s apartment prior to the arrest because he was considered a flight risk as a Mexican citizen.
When the Mexican Consulate witness, Federico Guerra, took the stand and identified himself, Judge Anderson ordered the jury retired, and out of their presence stated that he was not going to allow the witness to testify unless he waived diplomatic immunity, which a Mexican Consulate is not allowed to do. Guerra did testify but the judge did not allow the jury to return into the courtroom to hear the testimony.
Judge Anderson then denied Andres’s defense team the opportunity to procure a Vienna Convention witness that could satisfy his requirements, as closing arguments were held shortly after this denial.
Anderson repeatedly called attorneys up to his bench to admonish the defense counsel, typically at times when there were no objections from the prosecutor. Andres’s defense attorneys were so disgusted and humiliated by Judge Anderson’s actions that after the trial was complete, a 9-page sworn affidavit was submitted to the court by defense attorney Judith Prince addressing the improprieties committed throughout Andres’s trial.
The prosecution’s entire case was built on what may have been a coerced false confession through a statement that was allegedly dictated by Andres Mascorro and typed by a Harris County Sheriff’s Office Detective.
The jurors were sent off to deliberate on a Friday afternoon and were unable to reach a verdict that evening. On the following Monday, March 8, 1999, Andres Mascorro was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison.
A life sentence in Texas requires that any offender serve at least 40 years before becoming eligible for parole.
On July 13, 1999, “The Railway Killer” Angel Resendiz surrendered to authorities in El Paso, Texas, and was transported to Houston to face capital murder charges for the beating death of Dr. Claudia Benton.
While he was awaiting trial, Resendiz sent letters to Judge Bill Harmon and several Houston reporters confessing to additional murders that he had committed across the United States.
The murder of Darryl Kolojaco was one of the murders that Resendiz confessed to. Resendiz consistently stated that he killed Darryl because Darryl had made homosexual advances towards him.
Diamantina’s statement to officers on the night of the murder that she suspected Darryl was leading an alternative lifestyle was never mentioned in press coverage of the case and was only discussed through a couple of witnesses during the two trials. Both trials were complete and the defendants sentenced before Angel Resendiz was ever taken into custody.
Law enforcement officers in Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Illinois and Texas were able to confirm that some of the murders that Resendiz had confessed to were, in fact, committed by him. No governmental or law enforcement agency has ever been able to present any credible, scientific proof that Resendiz ever confessed to a murder that he did not commit.
Cold cases were solved by Resendiz’s confessions, and a couple in Georgia that had been charged with a murder that Resendiz had committed were freed and their charges dropped.
But Andres’s prosecutor Vic Wisner has said that because Resendiz mispronounced Darryl Kolojaco’s name in his confession, it was impossible that he could have committed the crime, despite the fact that he knew intimate details of Darryl and Diamantina’s home. So the capital murder conviction of Andres Mascorro from more than 20 years ago still stands.
For now.
Andres is currently incarcerated at the McConnell Unit in Beeville, TX serving a life sentence. He will be eligible for parole in June of 2038, but Proclaim Justice is working diligently to win this innocent man’s freedom.
Andres would welcome letters of encouragement. You can write him in Spanish at:
Andres Mascorro #00880908
Memorial Unit
59 Darrington Road
Rosharon, TX 77583