Salinas Man Pleads Guilty In The Ventura County Case That Involved The Murder Of His Estranged Wife

Tuesday March 25, 2025

     Update--The Salinas man charged with the murder of his estranged wife after she went missing from her family's home in Oxnard has changed his plea to guilty    

     On the night of Saturday July 20, 2021, 46-year-old Eudelia Gonzalez Rojas was last seen by family members getting into a vehicle with a man in the 4500 block of Terrace Avenue in Oxnard.

     It was the last time they would ever see her alive.

     They reported her missing the next day and Oxnard police began to investigate her disappearance.

     They quickly focused on her estranged husband, Josefino Cayetano Maldonado of Salinas, regarding her disappearance.

     There fears were realized when he ultimately confessed to killing her with a rock and then dumping her body along the 101 Freeway in Santa Barbara County in the area of the Gaviota pass.

     Maldonado initially pleaded not guilty to murder and denied a special allegation of using a deadly weapon.

     But Tuesday he changed his plea to guilty of murder and admitted the special allegation.

     Now 45-years-old, Maldonado remains in the Ventura County Jail and is being held without bail with sentencing set for April 22nd.