Raul Meza pleads guilty, receives life without parole in Lofton, Fraga murders

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Raul Meza, a convicted murderer who currently faced two additional murder charges in the deaths of Gloria Lofton, 65, and Jesse Fraga, 82, entered a guilty plea Monday afternoon.

The court accepted his plea agreement of life without the possibility of parole for each case, which is the maximum sentence. He is not eligible for parole, nor is he able to file an appeal on the case.

"I am pleading guilty, because I am guilty," Meza said in court.

Judge Julie Kocurek walked through the steps Meza took in the deaths of Fraga and Lofton, admitting to stabbing and cutting Fraga, and strangling Lofton to death while trying to commit the crime of aggravated sexual assault. Meza affirmed in court he was responsible for these actions.

The video above is from the KXAN newscast at 5

Police originally thought Meza could be linked to up to 10 additional murders. The department told us Monday cold case detectives have used DNA to rule out eight cases that took place between 1979 and 2021.

Kocurek asked Meza if he would like to say anything to the family members. He said no. When Kocurek followed up asking if he would like to apologize, he said he's already pleading guilty and did not feel the need to apologize to someone who wouldn't accept his apology.

Meza killed 8-year-old Kendra Page in 1982 and got out of prison early on good behavior due to lax state laws at the time. He was also convicted of aggravated robbery for shooting a store clerk in 1977. When police arrested him in May 2023 for the murders of Fraga and Lofton, investigators said he could be linked to up to 10 additional cold case murders.

Lofton's family said they're relieved Meza will spend the rest of his life in prison, but is disappointed the DA's Office won't move forward with the death penalty on the case. They also expressed frustration with the investigation and prosecutorial process related to their mother's case.

At his previous hearing about one month ago, Meza's attorneys presented an offer of life in prison for one murder and 20 years for another. Given how Texas law works, that would allow Meza the possibility of parole after 40 years. Meza is currently 63 years old.

Kocurek said she would not accept an offer that gives Meza the option for parole.

"I need it to be life without parole for me to accept it, or it needs to be tried by a jury," Kocurek said. She set another hearing for Monday afternoon and told both sides to consider that option in the meantime.

Family members of Lofton, Fraga and Page have attended every hearing since Meza's 2023 arrest, and outspokenly opposed any opportunity that would allow Meza to get out on parole.

Last week, Lofton's family issued a statement through their victims' advocate asking the district attorney's office not to accept a plea deal. They said they want to seek the death penalty and to see a jury trial for the sake of investigation transparency.

Meza's attorney, Russell Hunt, Jr., had previously said Meza wants this process to be over for both himself and the community. Meza is currently in custody in the Travis County Jail.

The deaths of Gloria Lofton and Jesse Fraga

In May 2023, Fraga's niece asked the Pflugerville Police Department to do a welfare check on her uncle, and police found him dead inside their home. KXAN investigators discovered the Fraga family had taken Meza in and tried to help him re-enter society after he was released from prison in the Page case.

Police identified Meza as a person of interest, and Meza eventually turned himself into the Austin Police Department. While doing so, he implicated himself in the 2019 death of Gloria Lofton.

On that call, according to his arrest affidavit, he mentioned being in and out of prison throughout his life, and said after his most recent release in 2016, "I ended up murdering a lady soon afterward... It was on Sara Drive."

APD 'deeply sorry' about DNA 'oversight' in Lofton’s murder case

In early April, APD addressed an internal investigation into the handling of a DNA hit as investigators looked into Lofton’s 2019 death on Sara Drive in east Austin.

Meza’s arrest affidavit stated that in 2020, a DNA profile obtained from a sexual assault kit for Lofton matched Meza's DNA, but police did not arrest Meza at that time, which was roughly four years before Fraga was killed.

Former Police Chief Joseph Chacon, who held the role at the time of Meza's arrest, launched the internal investigation last year to address what he called "potential investigative lapses," an APD spokesperson previously told KXAN.

After that internal investigation concluded, APD said a detective working Lofton’s case received information about a DNA hit on Raul Meza but did not follow up. He will not face any discipline, the department said, because state law prohibits the formal discipline of officers more than 180 days after an incident.

Interim Chief Robin Henderson issued the following statement on this matter:

“The Austin Police Department is deeply sorry about the oversight related to the DNA Lab Report in the Raul Meza case. We realize the impacts this has on the case itself, community and most importantly the victims and their families. As soon as the error was brought to our attention, we addressed it as quickly as we could to identify how it happened and implemented policies to avoid incidents like this from reoccurring. Since this occurrence, the Austin Police Department has added redundancies into the notification process to ensure this does not happen again.”

Interim APD Chief Robin Henderson