Man pleads guilty to murdering his son

Jose Gallardo was accused of murdering his son, whose body was discovered on the side of I-8 near Dateland in December 2022

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - In the Yuma Superior Court Wednesday morning, 36-year-old Jose Adan Gallardo accepted a plea agreement, changing his non-guilty plea to guilty.

Gallardo was charged with 10 felonies in December of 2022, including the first-degree murder of his 19-year-old son Mario Nez.

Before Gallardo accepted the plea agreement, he was facing life in prison without the possibility of parole. He would have died in prison if convicted in a trial.

Now that he accepted the agreement, he pled guilty to second-degree murder, and all other charges were dismissed as part of the plea.

Now he will serve 20 years behind bars with no possibility of early release.

Judge Darci Weede said his jury trial was set for July 19 through August 3, but now that he plead guilty, the case will not go to trial.

The murder happened on December 12, when the Yuma County Sheriff's Office responded to multiple calls about a body lying on the side of Interstate 8, at mile marker 65 near Dateland.

The body would be later identified as Mario Nez.

Over 10 hours after officers responded to the scene, law enforcement arrested Gallardo with the assistance of helicopters in the desert near Mohawk Pass after he had fled the scene.

Gallardo and Nez lived in the Phoenix area, but according to social media posts made by family members, they were traveling back home from California, with the alleged murder taking place in Yuma County.