The Cameron County District Attorney’s Office will not seek the death penalty against a Brownsville man accused of killing his ex-wife, court documents filed Monday reveal.
The DA’s office filed a notice of intent not to seek the death penalty late Monday afternoon, after the pre-trial hearing before 138th state District Court Judge Gabriela Garcia for Jose Arnoldo Rodriguez, 37, who is charged with capital murder, solicitation to commit capital murder and burglary of habitation with intent to commit other felony. Rodriguez stands accused in the Nov. 2, 2020 shooting death of his ex-wife Adela Gonzalez Martinez.
During the Monday afternoon pre-trial hearing, there appeared to be confusion as to which attorney would be representing Rodriguez in his capital murder trial.
Although defense attorney Ernesto Gamez had been appointed to represent Rodriguez, the suspect’s wife Cynthia Olvera sought to hire a different attorney, Gamez said.
The judge said that had the justice system not had confidence in Gamez, he would not have been appointed to represent Rodriguez. “Let me tell you he wouldn’t be standing here if he didn’t have the qualifications,” the judge said.
Gamez had filed a motion to withdraw from representing Rodriguez because his wife wanted to hire someone else.
He said in all of his years of practice he has never had to withdraw from a case.
“ The lady has been very nice and very cooperative, but if she chose to see another lawyer I could not stop her from seeing another lawyer,” Gamez said.
Garcia reminded all the parties that Rodriguez is the person standing trial for capital murder and not his wife.
Although Rodriguez’s wife mentioned the name of another Brownsville attorney she was trying to hire for her husband, Rodriguez told the judge that he had never made contact with any attorney and the only attorneys he has talked to are Gamez and the attorney’s daughter Erin Gamez, who is also an attorney.
“ Mr. Rodriguez, at the end of the day you decide who your attorney is going to be because you are the client. It is not your wife, it is not your son, it is not your daughter, it is not your mother, it is not your father, it is not your uncle, your aunt, your padrino or your madrina. It is you. So you decide,” Garcia said.
Garcia asked Rodriguez who he would like to represent him and he said he would want Gamez “if Mr. Gamez would like to continue representing me.”
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, court documents show. All three of the men have pleaded not guilty.
The DA’s office announced earlier that it would not seek the death penalty against Roman Martinez.
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 lying on the bed with her legs falling to the right side of it. An officer tried to wake her up but she did not move. Another officer 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. 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.
As of late Monday, the next pre-trial hearing scheduled in this case is set for Jan. 18
