A San Juan man who has been jailed since late March without bond pleaded not guilty Monday to fatally cutting a 47-year-old woman’s neck.
A grand jury indicted Larry Charles Culbert III on June 24 on a count of murder over allegations he killed Andrea Socorro Reyna on March 25.
Alamo police arrested Culbert at the crime scene at the Bealls plaza in Alamo at 1449 Duranta Ave. after responding to a verbal dispute turned murder at around 6:30 p.m. that day.
Since then, he had been held without bond.
However, during Monday’s proceeding, 275th state District Judge Marla Cuellar granted an agreed motion to set his bond at $1 million.
This is was Culbert’s third arraignment setting since he had been indicted.
When he first appeared in July, his court-appointed attorney Ricardo Alanis said he couldn’t tell Cuellar that his client was competent for arraignment and Culbert himself told the judge he somewhat had trouble understanding the court hearing and that he was taking medication.
A second setting was scheduled but did not occur after Cuellar ordered he be examined for competency.
However, since then, Culbert has retained attorney Regina “Regi” Richardson who told Cuellar that she would be asking that a motion to examine Culbert’s competency filed by Alanis early in the case to not be considered.
She told Cuellar that at this stage in the case she didn’t think the motion needed to be considered and would file another competency motion should it be necessary.
Alanis’ motion is sealed in public online court records.
Alamo police believe Culbert killed Reyna after the duo finished shopping. Reyna’s 11-year-old child was at the scene at the time of the killing, police have said.
“They got out of their vehicles and a verbal dispute began regarding jealousy. The suspect then knocked the victim to the ground and with a knife cut the victim’s throat and the suspect then turned the knife on himself, causing a self-inflicted stab wound to his neck area,” police said in a news release.
Child Protective Services took custody of the child and reunited them with a family member.
Culbert was taken to the hospital before being transported to the Alamo Police Department where he was arraigned.
He remains jailed.
