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A judge has ordered that a 27-year-old Alamo man charged in a bloody double stabbing that resulted in the deaths of two men at a McAllen Motel 6 will be examined to determine whether he is competent to stand trial.
Carlos Antonio Cardenas Jr.’s attorney, O. Rene Flores, filed a motion requesting the examination in early August, which a judge granted on Tuesday, according to court records.
Cardenas is charged with capital murder of multiple persons and attempted murder for the March 18 killings of 40-year-old San Juan resident Luis Eduardo Garza and 45-year-old Virginia resident Keith Henry Cole.
Cardenas attacked the men early that morning at the hotel on 700 W. Expressway 83.
When police arrested Cardenas at around 6:30 a.m. he was soaked in blood “from his face to his shoes” and was holding a knife.
Police said in a 22-page affidavit for his arrest that Cardenas spoke incoherently, refused to identify himself and claimed an unknown “they” would hear it.
Investigators also found a clear glass pipe with burnt residue inside his pocket.
During the incident, the affidavit said that after Cardenas stabbed the men, which was caught on surveillance video, he went to the hotel’s front office and told the clerk: “Something happened, somebody got killed.”
He also claimed someone was trying to kill him and warned the clerk that if police responded “they are going to kill you and they are going to kill all of us.”
Cardenas then began kicking the front desk glass door while the clerk called 911 before escaping, according to the affidavit, which said another man in the lobby tried to walk out but Cardenas followed him before threatening him.
“You need to come with me,” Cardenas told the man as he placed the knife to the man’s face, according to the affidavit.
That man later told police Cardenas tried to get him to take the knife but he refused and Cardenas let him go.
After his arrest, the affidavit said Cardenas called out to the man, yelling “I saved you. I saved you,” as he was being wheeled away by paramedics to an ambulance.
Once in the ambulance, Cardenas began spitting, vomiting and speaking incoherently.
Cardenas remains held in the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center on a total of $906,000 in bonds.
