Lubbock Man Pleads Guilty for 2014 Aggravated Assault
A tragic story finally came to a close in court on Thursday, when 23-year-old Vincent Brian Mendez of Lubbock pleaded guilty for aggravated assault.
The story began in 2014, when Lubbock sheriffs discovered Raymond “Kaleb” Hockenberry at a residence in northwest Lubbock with gunshot wound to the neck.
Lubbock police were responding to reports of shots fired at around 4:00 a.m. in the 7000 block of County Road 6500.
Hockenberry was attending a woman’s 21st birthday party when he got into an argument with a man named Matt Jensen, who was 22-years-old at the time. The argument escalated and Jensen reportedly fired a weapon twice, hitting Hockenberry in the neck once.
Hockenberry was taken to University Medical Center with life-threatening injuries that would later leave him in a quadriplegic state.
According to witnesses, Jensen fled the scene after shooting Hockenberry, along with two other men whom they believed to be drug dealers with ties to a Mexican cartel: 19-year-old John Covarrubio and 20-year-old Vincent Brian Mendez.
All three men were eventually arrested by police on separate dates after the men denied knowing each other and indicted on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2014. They all faced charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Now, at least one of the alleged shooters has pleaded guilty for his involvement. The now 23-year-old Vincent Mendez pled guilty for aggravated assault on Thursday and will serve 8 years in prison for his crime, along with an addition 8 years for bail jumping.
The cases against Janssen and Covarrubio are still pending.