The trial of three men accused in the Nov. 2, 2020, shooting death of Adela Gonzalez Martinez in Brownsville has been transferred to another state District Court.
Judge Janet Leal, of the 103rd state District Court, was to preside over the capital murder case brought against Jose Arnoldo Rodriguez, Jonathan Xavier Roman Martinez and Charly Angel Carillo Torres, but court documents revealed that 138th state District Judge Gabriela Garcia will now hear the case because Leal signed a search warrant in the capital murder case.
“On December 18, 2020, Judge Leal signed a search warrant involving defendant Jose Arnoldo Rodriguez and Jonathan Xavier Roman Martinez, where she found probable cause to believe that they were involved with the murder of Adela Gonzalez (the alleged victim),” an order transferring cause reads. The transfer was granted on Aug. 3.
According to a Brownsville Police Department incident report, Jose Arnoldo Rodriguez arrived at his ex-wife Adela Gonzalez Martinez’s home on Dana Avenue in Brownsville between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. on Nov. 2, 2020, to drop off their two children. His mother and the children were with him.
In the report, Rodriguez states he tried to call his ex-wife several times but she never answered the phone.
Upon arriving at her apartment at the 2200 block of Dana Avenue, Rodriguez noticed the door to her residence was open and he called police, said investigator Martin Sandoval, spokesman for the Brownsville Police Department.
The call to police came in as a welfare concern — when a citizen calls for police to respond in reference to safety and health concerns.
According to the incident report, police found Gonzalez Martinez laying on the bed with her legs falling to the right side of it. An officer identified in the report as “Officer Silva” tried to wake her up but she did not move. Another officer identified as “Officer Goodrich” saw that a pillow had been placed on Gonzalez Martinez’s face. “Officer Silva then removed the pillow from her face and I (Officer Goodrich) observed that Adela had swelling and bruising on the right side of her face. I observed the pillow to have a circular blood stain. I also observed that Adela had a cranial caving in the center top portion of her head,” the report reads.
The report states the apartment was checked, nothing seemed out of place and that it was organized and clean.
EMS personnel were dispatched to the scene and after they checked Gonzalez Martinez they said she was dead and the time was 3:02 a.m., the reports read. Cameron County Justice of the Peace Precinct 2, Place 3 Mary Esther Sorola was called and shortly after her arrival she ordered an autopsy on Gonzalez Martinez. She was pronounced dead at 3:50 a.m. Soon after crime scene investigators arrived.
Now, according to grand jury indictments and criminal charges, investigators allege that the ex-husband hired two men to kill the mother of his children.
A motive for her killing is unknown. The men charged in her death are refusing to talk, police said.
Rodriguez and suspects Charly Angel Carrillo Torres and Jonathan Xavier Roman Martinez are each charged with murder in Gonzalez Martinez’s death. Rodriguez is also charged with two counts of criminal solicitation.
All three of the men have pleaded not guilty.
Court documents indicate that Jose Arnoldo and Adela filed for divorce on June 29, 2016, and that divorce was granted June 12, 2017.
Rodriguez, Carrillo Torres and Roman Martinez remain in custody at the Cameron County jails on various bonds.
According to court records, their trial date is scheduled for Sept. 27 in the 138th state District Court.
