Two Palm Beach County men are facing the death penalty after state prosecutors notified the court of their intent to seek the punishment in a case involving alleged sex abuse against a child.
The case is the first in Palm Beach County where prosecutors have sought the state’s highest punishment for an offense other than a homicide.
In a statement released on Oct. 3, the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office said it will seek the death penalty against Josue D. Mendez Sales, 27, and Pablo N. Cobon Mendez, 23, both of West Palm Beach.
A grand jury indicted them in August on charges of sexual battery on a child under 12. Mendez Sales and Cobon Mendez are facing two counts each of sexual battery
The men have pleaded not guilty to all charges. Records show they are separately being represented by the Palm Beach County Public Defender’s Office and the state Office of Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel. As a matter of policy, the offices do not comment on active cases.
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It is at least the third death penalty filing since Alexcia Cox became the state attorney for Palm Beach County in January. It is rare for prosecutors to seek the punishment for crimes other than first-degree murder. State law allows them to pursue it for a narrow range of other offenses.
According to West Palm Beach police arrest reports, the child described to babysitters being sexually abused by both men. Police investigators said they each admitted to having sexual contact with the child on multiple occasions, saying the acts typically occurred while they were intoxicated.
“The crimes committed against this young child are among the most horrific imaginable,” Cox said in a prepared statement. she called the “repeated abuse of a defenseless child” not only a violation of the law but “a violation of our deepest human values.”
Many death-penalty cases do not end with death sentence
The death penalty filing does not preclude the state attorney’s office from withdrawing the request as the case proceeds to trial. It has done so in other high-profile murder cases, such as that of Sheila Keen-Warren, who was accused of first-degree murder in the 1990 Wellington “clown killer” case.
A judge sentenced Keen-Warren to 12 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. She was released from prison in November 2024 after being credited with time served and gain time.
The county’s most recent death penalty trial occurred in 2023, when prosecutors sought to convict Larry Darnell Young of murder in the 2021 shooting death of a 16-year-old girl. A jury convicted him of manslaughter, sparing Young a second trial that would have determined whether he should be sentenced to death.
Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at jwhigham@pbpost.com and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @JuliusWhigham. Help support our work: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Two South Florida men to face death penalty in child sex abuse case