VIDEO: Raul Meza Jr. speaks after 1993 release
AUSTIN (KXAN) – KXAN has followed the story of Raul Meza Jr. for more than three decades.
Meza Jr. pleaded guilty to murder in the death of Kendra Page, an 8-year-old Austin girl, in 1982.
Austin Police said Tuesday that Meza Jr., 62, confessed to murdering his roommate, Jesse Fraga, 80, and implicated himself in the murder of Gloria Lofton, 66, in 2019.
When Meza was first released from prison for Page's death in 1993, he tried to convince the public he had changed.
"There's is nothing that I can do to change my past. I can only tell you that in my heart I would not willfully bring harm to anyone," Meza said then.
As KXAN reported in 1993, protesters greeted him with angry yells outside his mother's home.
Meza had been rejected from five Texas cities after people had learned what he had done but his mother was eager to see him.
"I'm feeling hopeful for the future for me and my family and my son in spite of what is going on outside the front yard. I know that Raul has had to take a long way home, but he's finally home where he belongs," Meza's mother said in 1993.
Meza's mother also asked for the public to leave her and her son alone. She also showed KXAN at the time a picture Raul Meza Jr. drew for her as a symbol of their dedication for each other.
Meza violated his parole in 1994, about a year and a half after his release for Page's murder. At the time, investigators told KXAN he had an electric monitor and was supposed to be under "lockdown" overnight.
During a check, a parole officer found Meza missing with over three hours unaccounted for. During a parole hearing, Meza said he wouldn't do it again, but that didn't sit well with Page's father.
"It's very simple for people to say 'Yeah, I won't do it again,' and then back out and repeat their crimes," he said, "and I'm sorry but I just didn't feel sorry for the guy when he'd done what he'd done to my daughter."
Authorities ultimately decided to revoke Meza's parole and he went back to prison until 2002.