Two years after a Brownsville mother was shot and killed in an alleged murder for hire case it appears the men accused of killing her could be standing trial soon.
The trial is tentatively scheduled to begin in April.
Jose Arnoldo Rodriguez, 38, is accused of hiring two men to kill his ex-wife, and at pre-trial hearing held Wednesday for the case ended with one of the accused requesting that he have his own separate trial.
Rodriguez, Charly Angel Carrillo Torres, 35, and Jonathan Xavier Roman Martinez, 34, are each charged with murder for causing Adela Gonzalez Martinez’s death, Rodriguez’s ex-wife, court documents show.
All three of the men have pleaded not guilty.
At a pre-trial hearing Tuesday before 138th state District Judge Gabriela Garcia defense attorney Ed Cyganiewicz, who is representing Martinez, filed a motion to sever Martinez’s case from the other and Garcia granted the motion.
This means Rodriguez and Carrillo will be tried together, and Martinez will be tried separately.
Rodriguez and Martinez, both dressed in orange jumpsuits, sat through Tuesday’s court proceedings that lasted less than a half hour.
Rodriguez’s next pre-trial hearing is scheduled for March 28. Martinez’s pre-trial hearing is scheduled for March 21.
Rodriguez, Martinez, and Carrillo have remained in jail since their March 2021 arrest.
According to grand jury indictments and criminal charges, investigators allege that Rodriguez 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 in earlier interviews.
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 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.
State court records show that the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office does not plan to seek the death penalty in the case.
