A prosecution that began with first-degree murder charges is now headed to sentencing after a March plea.
COLUMBUS, Neb. — The criminal case against Manuel Mesa-Cabrera took a decisive turn in March when the 26-year-old Columbus man pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and a weapons charge in the shooting death of his stepfather outside a Walmart.
The plea matters because it changes both the legal posture and the public timetable of a case that began with a first-degree murder arrest after a May 2025 shooting in a store parking lot. Instead of preparing for a murder trial, the Platte County case is now moving toward sentencing, with the court expected to weigh the admitted killing of 42-year-old Anhil David Mirabal Hernandez and the circumstances prosecutors say led to it.
By the time Mesa-Cabrera entered his plea, the case had already been publicly framed for months as a family homicide with planning evidence behind it. Court reporting in March said prosecutors alleged he shot Hernandez, his stepfather, at a Columbus Walmart in May 2025. The charge reduction from first-degree murder to second-degree murder was the clearest signal yet that the case would end in a negotiated resolution instead of a contested trial. News reports on the plea did not lay out every term of the agreement, and public summaries available online do not explain what concessions, if any, each side made beyond the amended counts. What is clear is that Mesa-Cabrera admitted guilt to a lesser homicide charge and a weapons count, narrowing the next phase of the case to punishment rather than proof.
The underlying allegations remained stark. Investigators said Mesa-Cabrera asked Hernandez to go to Walmart to help find a vehicle part, an ordinary errand that prosecutors later cast as a setup. After the two reached the store at 818 E. 23rd St. on May 27, 2025, authorities said, Mesa-Cabrera pulled out a 9 mm Smith and Wesson handgun and shot Hernandez in the chest and head. Police were called at about 6:20 p.m. Capt. Doug Molczyk said officers arrived to find Hernandez on the ground with an apparent gunshot wound to the chest and began life-saving efforts until medics took over. Hernandez was taken to Columbus Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The public record as summarized by local outlets does not show whether there were eyewitness accounts describing the exact moments before the gunfire.
The case file also grew to include details that prosecutors would likely have used had the matter gone to trial. Local coverage citing an arrest affidavit said investigators believed Mesa-Cabrera had decided in the days leading up to the shooting that he was going to kill Hernandez. The same reporting said he had legally purchased the handgun about two weeks earlier. Those details, if presented in court, would have helped explain why prosecutors first charged first-degree murder. The affidavit cited in news reports also said Mesa-Cabrera had previously been diagnosed with schizophrenia and was not taking medication or seeing a doctor at the time. The record available through public reporting does not establish a direct legal finding about how that diagnosis affected criminal responsibility, and no insanity ruling or similar court finding has been reported in the case summaries now available.
Police, meanwhile, described a fast-moving end to the initial investigation. Shortly after the shooting, authorities said, Mesa-Cabrera turned himself in at the police department. According to reporting based on the affidavit, he said he did so because he knew he was going to be arrested. He was then booked on first-degree murder and firearm charges. That sequence gave investigators both a crime scene in a public parking lot and a suspect already in custody, limiting the uncertainty that often follows a homicide in an open commercial area. Columbus police said the investigation remained ongoing after the arrest, though later public developments centered less on identifying a suspect than on how the state would prosecute him.
The next hearing is now the main unresolved event. News Channel Nebraska reported that sentencing is set for April 30, while earlier coverage had said only that sentencing would occur in April. At that hearing, lawyers can be expected to present their competing views of the offense, the defendant’s background, and the impact of Hernandez’s death. It is not yet clear from the available public summaries whether relatives of Hernandez plan to address the court, whether prosecutors will argue the earlier planning evidence in detail, or whether defense counsel will rely heavily on mental health records as mitigation. Those are the pieces that could still reshape public understanding of a case whose central fact is no longer in dispute.
For Columbus, the case has moved from the shock of a killing outside a major retailer to the narrower but still consequential question of sentence. The next milestone comes April 30, when a judge is expected to decide how the plea will translate into punishment.
Author note: Last updated April 13, 2026.