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A 19-year-old Brownsville man pleaded guilty on Monday to a charge of murder for the 2020 stabbing death of a woman when he was 16 years old.
George Neftaly Rodriguez had been certified to stand trial as an adult on a charge of capital murder over the Dec. 14, 2020 stabbing death of Maria Teresa Esparza — his neighbor — at the Waterside Apartments in the 4200 block of Boca Chica Boulevard.
He reached a plea deal with prosecutors and is scheduled for sentencing in May, according to court records and the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office.
The indictment alleged Rodriguez killed Esparza by hitting her in the head with a glass candle and stabbing her with a knife, or knives, multiple times during an aggravated robbery.
An incident report at the time said Esparza’s son flagged down police and told them his mother was inside the apartment. He said he went to his mother’s apartment because he had been calling, but she had not been answering, according to the report.
When he arrived, he noticed his mother’s door was locked so he used his key to open it, which is when he went in and noticed the freezer door was open.
The man found his mother on her bedroom floor with “blood splattered throughout the floor,” according to the report.
He then checked for a pulse, couldn’t find one and called 9-1-1.
“Officers then checked the surrounding area and noticed the room looked like it had been ransacked as makeup containers were scattered through the entrance to the bedroom door along with a set of keys and a wooden fold up table,” the report stated. “Officers also noticed pieces of hair on the bottom of one of the legs of cabinets and noticed two kitchen knives and a pair of scissors next to the victim’s head.”
The report states that investigators found Esparza’s phone in a nearby dumpster. They could hear a “phone buzzing inside the trash dumpster outside the apartment.”
Rodriguez, who was arrested on March 24, 2021, has remained held in the Cameron County Carrizales-Rucker Detention Center without bond since his arrest.
