A 67-year-old man accused of stabbing and killing his girlfriend more than five years ago has again been declared incompetent to strand trial.
The attorney representing Angel Bolanos Vasquez waived a hearing on June 1 for the renewal of an order extending his commitment in a state hospital, which was set to expire on Wednesday.
Bolanos is accused of fatally stabbing 55-year-old Rita Velasquez 14 times on Jan. 15, 2017. They had been dating for five months prior to her death.
Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested him at about 3:30 a.m. that day in the 3900 block of North Alamo Road in the La Mansion apartment complex in rural Edinburg.
Investigators allege he stabbed Velasquez because he believed she was sleeping with another man inside the apartment they shared, but authorities determined there was no evidence of anyone else being inside the residence.
State District Judge Noe Gonzalez first declared Bolanos, who has been diagnosed with dementia, incompetent in October 2019 and ordered him sent to the state hospital to restore his competency.
However, he remained in the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center until Feb. 2021. The court, prosecutor and defense attorney did not discover that he had not been sent to the hospital until October 2020.
During that hearing, the court noted that his strength and vision were weakening and Bolanos appeared to not understand the proceedings.
In the June 1 waiver, San Antonio State Hospital Superintendent Robert C. Arizpe wrote in a letter to the judge that Bolanos should remain in the hospital for another year.
“It is the opinion of the treatment team that Mr. (Bolanos) Vasquez remains incompetent to stand trial and continues to meet the criteria for involuntary inpatient treatment,” Arizpe wrote.
The letter includes two medical certificates in support of the re-commitment.
In the second, which is dated May 16, officials say he remains diagnosed with psychosis and dementia and is likely to cause serious bodily harm to others.
The certificate said Bolanos has occasionally threatened to harm other patients and has admitted to killing someone in the past.
Officials also wrote that he has significant memory and executive function deficits due to dementia, has not made progress toward competency and will likely never attain competency.
The first certificate, which is dated May 10, echoes the May 16 certificate.
“Consequently, he has no rational understanding of his charges, no understanding of the legal process, and no comprehension of the possible consequences of his actions. He remains incompetent to stand trial,” a hospital psychiatrist wrote.
That document notes that on Nov. 19, 2021, he told staff he wanted to kill another male peer and that he said “I already had a taste of what it is to kill.”
