Jose Gallardo was charged with the murder of his son, whose body was found along Interstate 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 bargain, changing his plea of ​​not guilty to guilty.

Gallardo was indicted in December 2022 on 10 felony counts, including the first-degree murder of his 19-year-old son Mario Nez.

Before Gallardo accepted the plea bargain, he was facing life in prison without the possibility of parole. He would have died in prison had he been found guilty at trial.

Now that he has accepted the agreement, he has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, with all other charges dismissed as part of the plea.

He will serve 20 years in prison with no chance of early release.

Judge Darcy Wiede said a jury trial was scheduled from July 19 to August 3, but now that he has pleaded guilty, the case will not go to trial.

The murder occurred on December 12, when the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office responded to multiple calls of a body lying at Mile Marker 65 off Interstate 8 near Dateland.

The body was later identified as Mario Nez.

More than 10 hours after police were dispatched to the scene, law enforcement arrested Gallardo, who had fled the scene, with helicopter assistance in the desert near Mohawk Pass.

Gallardo and Nez lived in the Phoenix area and were on their way home from California in Yuma County, where the murder took place, according to family social media posts.