Alamo police on Thursday arrested a third suspect in the fatal shooting that happened late Tuesday night in a McDonald’s parking lot.
In a news release, police called the arrest of Jose Alberto Jimenez Jr., a resident of Pasadena, Texas, a “significant breakthrough” in the ongoing investigation.
“Acting on a tip, investigators conducted surveillance at the 6200 Block of Vaughn Road in the City of Donna, Texas,” the release stated. “During this surveillance, they identified the second vehicle of interest, a blue Ford Fusion.”
After locating the vehicle, they arrested Jimenez without incident.
“The investigation remains active, and Alamo Police Investigators continue to pursue additional leads,” the release stated.
The shooting happened at around 11:47 p.m. outside a McDonald’s located at 1018 W. Frontage Road.
Alamo police spokesman Jacob Garcia said previously that Medina shot a man, who police have not identified, three times. That person died at the scene.
Montemayor, who surrendered after the shooting, is accused of acting as a getaway driver. She provided information resulting in Medina’s arrest, according to police.
He was found in the 600 block of North 19th Street in McAllen at an address known to police because a murder occurred there in July.
Investigators believe the recent shooting may be gang and drug related and the residence where Medina was found is affiliated with gang activity, Garcia said previously.
Both Montemayor and Medina are being held in the Hidalgo County Adult Detention center without bond.
Jimenez is scheduled for a first appearance and bond hearing in Alamo Municipal Court on Friday.
Arrests stemming from the McAllen party where a Nikki Rowe football player suffered a fatal injury continue to climb.
On Friday morning, police said authorities arrested Emma De La Cruz and Mateo Castillo, both 17, who they suspect of organizing the party where a fee was charged and alcohol was made available to minors. They are charged with furnishing alcohol to a minor.
Also on Wednesday, police announced the arrest of Heron Hernandez Jr., 17, who is also charged with furnishing alcohol to a minor. He’s accused of being one of the party’s hosts and collecting entrance fees.
The party was advertised on social media and tickets were sold for $10 prior to the party and there was a $15 entry fee on the day of the party.
The party happened in the 4700 block of North Bentsen Road.
Police have also arrested 51-year-old Jaime De La Cerda Islas and his son, who is a juvenile, for the same allegations.
Emma De La Cruz received a $25,000 bond on Thursday and was transported to the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center. She posted bond and bailed out that same day.
Castillo is scheduled for an appearance in McAllen Municipal Court on Friday.
The Nikki Rowe Student Council, meanwhile, said via Facebook that a vigil for De La Cruz is going to be held Friday night at 7 p.m. at the Rowe Football Field.
Funeral arrangements for Adan De La Cruz are being held Saturday.
WESLACO — The Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a fatal Weslaco police shooting that happened late Thursday night.
The suspect was identified as 22-year-old Juan Diego Contreras. He was shot and killed by a Weslaco police officer who is an eight-year-veteran with a military background, according to Police Chief Joel Rivera said at a Friday press conference.
At 11:29 p.m., Weslaco police received a call for service in regards to shots fired in the area of 700 N. Republic Street, Rivera stated.
Officers were at the scene within three minutes and met with a complainant who directed them to the area of 700 N. Pueblo St.
It was there that made contact with Contreras.
According to Rivera, Contreras was “extremely intoxicated.”
“Contreras was highly intoxicated and aggressive,” Rivera said. “At some point during that interaction, he turned around and reached for a shotgun.”
At that point the responding officer feared for his life and the lives of those close by and shot Contreras, Rivera said.
The initial news release regarding this situation stated that Contreras was transported to the Knapp Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
The Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office was then called to conduct the investigation into the shooting as per protocol, Rivera said.
Additionally, the officer who shot Contreras was placed on administrative paid leave.
When asked for additional information, Rivera stated he would rather not speculate as the investigation is still ongoing.
Editor’s note: This story was updated with new information from the news conference.
PHARR — The 2023 campaign was a year of firsts for PSJA High. The Bears went 5-0 during district play, capturing their first outright district title since 2018.
PSJA High also picked up its first postseason win since 2008, snapping a streak of seven playoff appearances with first-round losses.
This year’s PSJA High squad is aiming for more, with a solid core of seniors ready to lead the charge. The Bears open as the No. 3 team in the RGVSports.com 5A/6A preseason poll.
“I was excited last year, but I’m even more excited this year,” PSJA High senior running back Jorge Alanis said. “We had a pretty good season last year and I expect even better this year. We’ve been good in the weight room and throughout the summer. Then all the success we had in 7-on-7, it has been building up for this season.”
The biggest question mark for the Bears heading into the new year came from the quarterback position, with four-year starter Jaime Lopez gone to graduation.
Enter former Edinburg Vela starter Myles Lopez.
The 6-foot-3, 185-pound signal caller is slated to step into the QB1 role this season, bringing two years of varsity experience with him.
Lopez will have his work cut out for him on offense, with the Bears returning some of the top offensive weapons in the RGV.
Senior wideouts Emiliano Fraga, Caleb Salas and Ryan Vallejo make up arguably the top receiving corp in the Rio Grande Valley, combining for 2,491 receiving yards and 28 touchdowns last year.
“I’m loving the new offense for sure,” Lopez said. “The air raid, I’m really liking it a lot. I’ve been putting in work with the receivers pretty much every day. I just feel really excited to show that chemistry off.”
Add in do-it-all running back Alanis (1,313 total yards, 17 touchdowns) and the offense, which averaged 33.7 points and 411.3 yards per game last season, shouldn’t skip a beat this year.
“I think the offense is going to be better than it ever has been,” Alanis said. “We’re still the same Bears, so expect us to score a lot of points every game. Nothing new. Just expect it to be even better than last year.”
The defense brings back its own set of standout seniors, including District 31-6A defensive MVP Cody Longoria. The four-year letterwinner racked up 150 total tackles, 16 tackles for loss and two sacks a year ago.
Hybrid linebacker Armando Davila adds another high-motor weapon in the middle of the field, finishing second on the team in total tackles (111), while also adding a team-high two interceptions.
Defensive lineman Jayden James (66 total tackles, 15 TFL, five sacks) and defensive back Diego Santos (30 total tackles, four passes defensed, one interception) add playmakers at each level on a defense that could be among the best in the area this year.
The Bears’ non-district slate consists of five playoff teams from a year ago, including a Week 2 game against intracity rival PSJA North on Sept. 6 and a Week 5 contest against 2023 Class 5A DI state semifinalist Brownsville Veterans on Sept. 27.
They’ll kick off their district title defense on Oct. 10 against Edinburg High. Their biggest test could come in Week 9 against new district rival and last year’s 32-6A champion Weslaco High.
“I love having a target on our back this year,” Alanis said. “It gives us a lot of motivation knowing people want to come at us and beat us. We’re excited to face off the district competition. It’s a similar district, but we’ve just got a bigger target on our back now.”
HARLINGEN — With the 2024 Texas high school football regular season just one week away, teams across the RGV took the field Thursday for their final tune-up.
At Boggus Stadium in Harlingen, the hometown Cardinals hosted Sharyland High in a full four-quarter scrimmage.
Here are some notes from the first half of the matchup between the Cardinals and Rattlers.
OFFENSIVE WOES
Sharyland High will have a new face under center in 2024 after the graduation of two-year starter Bo Krell, who is now at Houston Baptist. The new-look Rattlers struggled to find its groove Thursday, with six of their seven first-half drives ending without a score.
The Rattlers did show signs of life during their final drive of the first half, driving all the way down to the Harlingen High six-yard line before having to settle for a field goal before the break.
MIDSEASON FORM
Which the Rattlers’ offensive unit struggled, the Cardinals moved the ball with relative ease during the opening period, finding the endzone on two of their first three drives.
Leading the offensive charge was last year’s Herald/Star Tri-Newcomer of the Year Noah Huerta.
The junior running back gashed Sharyland High’s defense for 71 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries. Expect the Cardinals to lean on Huerta heavily early on during the season, with a brand-new quarterback under center for the team this year.
QUARTERBACK BATTLE
While the running back position is solidified for the Cardinals, the quarterback position is still up in the air heading into the new year.
Senior Jonas Serna and freshman Hasaan Woolery both saw action during the first half of Thursday’s scrimmage.
Serna opened the game at the helm for the Cardinals, playing in four of Harlingen High’s five first-half drives. The senior signal caller finished 3-of-8 for 56 yards during the first half, with most of his yardage coming on yards after catch from his receivers.
Woolery’s lone offensive drive during the first half ended in a turnover on downs inside enemy territory. Still, the freshman showed flashes of his potential early on, lowering his shoulder and running through a Sharyland High defender for a seven-yard gain on his first play of the game.
The freshman QB finished 3-of-4 for 15 yards during the first half, adding two carries for nine yards.
UP NEXT
With the offseason in the book, Harlingen High and Sharyland High now turn their attention to Week 1 of the regular season.
The Cardinals open the year against former district rival Weslaco High at 7 p.m. next Friday at Boggus Stadium in Harlingen.
The Rattlers hit the road for their Week 1 opener, taking on Weslaco East at 7:30 next Friday at Bobby Lackey Stadium in Weslaco.
SAN BENITO — While city officials are accusing VARCO’s OrigoWorks of stealing water, a company attorney is calling the claim a “smoke-screen” aimed at diverting attention from Mayor Rick Guerra’s brother’s alleged assault on the owner of an investigative firm officials believe is tied to the company.
At 6:41 p.m. Wednesday, the city issued a news release accusing OrigoWorks, part of VARCO, the Brownsville-based real estate company developing Resaca Village, of stealing city water at the project site.
Meanwhile, Paul Serafy, an attorney representing VARCO, said OrigoWorks’ subcontractor had mistakenly tapped into the city’s water supply.
Then early Tuesday night outside City Hall, Ramiro Guerra, the San Benito Housing Authority’s vice chairman, hit Wayne Dolcefino, owner of Houston-based Dolcefino Consulting, during an interview with City Manager Fred Sandoval as the mayor and police Chief Mario Perea stood by.
In his video, Dolcefino appears to push Ramiro Guerra’s hand away as he’s holding a cellphone.
Then Ramiro Guerra is seen using his hand to hit Dolcefino’s back while he’s interviewing Sandoval.
“He touched me first,” Ramiro Guerra calls to Perea, before Dolcefino tells the chief, “I want to charge him with assault.”
Later, Perea filed a citation of “assault, offensive contact” against Ramiro Guerra.
“Being in this job, you see a whole lot of things,” Perea said Thursday, referring to the incident.
On Thursday, Rick Guerra did not respond to calls and a message requesting comment, while Ramiro Guerra did not respond to a message left at the housing authority.
“My biggest concern is for the citizens of San Benito,” City Commissioner Tom Goodman said in an interview. “We don’t need the drama. We need to put our heads down and move forward.”
“I’m considering potential legal action against the city, not just for hiding public records but for the unprovoked assault in front of the mayor and the city manager, neither of whom did a thing to tell him to shut up while he was verbally harassing me while engaging in a legitimate interview with an elected public official,” Dolcefino said in an interview.
“If the mayor can’t control his family and stop saying stupid things, he should do the citizens a favor and resign,” he said. “Tell Ramiro, ‘I’m coming back’ and put his big-boy pants on, and I’m really trembling in fear from the Guerra family. I’ve spent about 50 years dealing with corrupt, incompetent and stupid public officials. The people in San Benito should be embarrassed and outraged by the conduct of the people they’ve entrusted.”
The next day, city officials issued a news release, accusing VARCO’s OrigoWorks of stealing city water at the Resaca Village project site.
“Police officers reported that a coupling was installed to the city’s existing back-flow pipes without approval,” the news release states. “The attachment allowed access to the city’s water supply. The back-flow did not have a water meter. The construction site supervisor admitted that they had used the city’s back-flow previously.”
On Thursday, Serafy noted Cameron County Justice of the Peace David Garza on Tuesday had dismissed the city’s citation against OrigoWorks because the city had issued its citation to the wrong party.
The city had issued the citation on Aug. 16, he said.
“A subcontractor hired by OrigoWorks had mistakenly connected his hose to the wrong water supply,” Serafy said in an interview. “It was an inadvertent error but, in any event, we would be more than happy to pay for the water that was used by mistake.”
So far this year, VARCO has paid the city $4,372 to use its water, he said.
“It is disappointing that the city leadership continues to prioritize politics over community progress,” Serafy said. “The city leadership is standing in the way of progress and VARCO will continue to fulfill it’s commitment to San Benito.”
Serafy described the last two days as “crazy.”
“The city deserves much better,” he said. “This is not how public officials should be acting and this is not how to get things done.”
On Dolcefino Consulting’s website, Dolcefino describes himself as a former award-winning investigative reporter with ABC 13 in Houston.
“Dolcefino Consulting is an investigative media consulting firm, hired by companies, law firms, private citizens and taxpayers to expose injustice, fraud, and abuse of power,” the website states.
Since June, city officials have said they believe VARCO is behind the investigation, while Serafy has said the company did not hire Dolcefino.
Meanwhile, Dolcefino has adamantly denied VARCO hired him.
In April, VARCO filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming the EDC breached the parties’ contracts surrounding the development of Resaca Village, failing to “honor its obligations” under an agreement extending its construction timeline while claiming its amendments “void” because city commissioners had not approved them.
In response, the city filed a counter suit, claiming VARCO breached its contract when the company failed to comply with the city’s agreements granting extensions on the project’s completion, originally set for 2022.
McALLEN — “It’s amazing! I’ve worked really hard to make McAllen the best for our citizens, our visitors, our guests. And for the city commission to have the trust and faith in me to promote me to being their city manager just speaks volumes.”
So reflected Isaac Tawil, the man McAllen city leaders tapped to lead the City of Palms after longtime City Manager Roel “Roy” Rodriguez retires next month.
“It really, really means the world to me,” Tawil told The Monitor via phone Thursday from Monterrey, Mexico, where they had just successfully inked an economic development partnership with Monterrey’s World Trade Center, a part of the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León.
The McAllen City Commission chose to elevate Tawil to the highest administrative position with the city after interviewing three candidates during a special meeting Monday.
Tawil has served the city of McAllen for more than a decade — first as an assistant city attorney in McAllen’s in-house legal department before being named the head of the department in 2021 after the retirement of former City Attorney Kevin Pagan.
Speaking after the city’s announcement, McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos said Tawil was the perfect candidate to replace Rodriguez, who has led the city through more than a decade of economic growth and financial stability.
“We looked at Mr. Tawil, I mean, he’s had his input in every subject, in every department,” Villalobos said.
“He’s in everything, and really, a lot of the times, (he) was Roy’s right-hand man. So, we felt very comfortable at the end, and we thought that this was the person… to keep on having us on the same trajectory of success,” the mayor added.
Tawil echoed that sentiment, saying his primary goal once he takes office on Sept. 13 will be to “continue to work on the path that they (the city commission) have set us on.”
Tawil positively gushed over the city he is set to soon lead, saying McAllen’s successes are due to the steadiness of its elected leadership and the skill of its current city manager.
“The financial security and stability that they have crafted for the city of McAllen really is unparalleled anywhere,” Tawil said.
Nor was Tawil shy about heaping praise on his mentor.
“I cannot compliment Roy enough for the level of execution that he has worked to accomplish the goals that the commission has put before us. It really is a testament to him,” Tawil said of Rodriguez.
The city attorney wasn’t the only current McAllen city staffer who applied for the top spot.
Two of Rodriguez’s subordinates — assistant city managers Michelle Rivera and Jeff Johnston — also threw their names in the hat.
And six people from outside the city also applied to be city manager, according to records released under a Texas Public Information Act request.
But the commission only chose to interview its three in-house applicants on Monday — a decision that pleased Rodriguez.
“I’m real happy that they did that because it says a lot about our organization,” Rodriguez said while standing just outside the legislative chamber Monday afternoon.
“This is a very complicated city, and a lot bigger city than most people realize. … Not to mention that the learning curve for somebody from outside (of McAllen) would be tremendous,” Rodriguez added.
For Mayor Villalobos, choosing someone who already had the experience and understanding of how McAllen works meant they could hit the ground running.
“We knew that we had to get somebody that could, just right off the bat, just go in there and do what has to be done ‘cause we have so many, so many things going on,” Villalobos said.
But choosing between the three internal candidates was a difficult decision, the mayor said, calling all three “amazing.”
For his part, Tawil said he was humbled to even be put on the commission’s short list with the two assistant city managers.
“Michelle and Jeff are the epitome of professionals and perfectionists at what they do. … They are, I would argue, the best in city management across the state,” Tawil said of his colleagues.
Of the external candidates who applied, only two had any prior experience working for local government. They include Randy Perez, who most recently served as the city manager of Mission.
Perez’s resume listed a litany of high-powered references, including construction magnate Alonzo Cantu, former Pharr city manager and Texas Transportation Commissioner Alejandro “Alex” Meade, former Texas Workforce Commissioner Julian Alvarez, current Mission Mayor Norie Gonzalez Garza, former Mission Mayor Ricardo A. Perez, and Weslaco City Manager Martin Garza.
However, in March, Randy Perez left the city of Mission under a cloud after irregularities in the city’s finances led to questions over Mission’s fiscal health.
Another public servant, Russell R. Solis, of Pharr, also applied to be the McAllen city manager. Currently, Solis works as a manager within Hidalgo County’s buildings and grounds department, according to his resume.
The resumes of two other candidates listed experience handling the finances of private companies. They are Rigoberto V. Abrego, the CFO and COO of Mission-based R&E Trucking, and Maria del Carmen Sosa, who currently serves as the controller for McAllen-based Fourwide Transportation and Logistics.
Another candidate, Abraham Cantu, of McAllen, is in the midst of building a civilian life and career after more than 20 years at various posts with the U.S. Army, his resume shows.
And the final candidate, James Arnold De La Garza, recently earned a masters degree in public administration.
De La Garza currently works as a case manager for San Benito-based Southwest Key Programs, a nonprofit organization that provides shelter for unaccompanied migrant children.
Ramon Segovia’s name will be on the November ballot in the race for Hidalgo County Precinct 3, Place 1 justice of the peace seat, essentially cementing his place on the bench since the race drew no Republican challengers.
The news comes after the 13th Court of Appeals on Wednesday dismissed an appeal filed by Sonia Treviño, the incumbent whose 31-vote victory in the May 28 Democratic Primary runoff, was overturned last month after Segovia challenged the results.
OUT OF TIME
The appeals court dismissed Treviño’s appeal as “moot,” or no longer relevant for consideration, because it doesn’t have enough time to consider the case before looming election deadlines lapse.
“Given the extremely voluminous record and expansive nature of the claims raised in this case, we conclude that the appeal is moot because any judgment this Court were to issue in this case would not be entered in time for election officials to comply with statutory deadlines …” Justice Jaime Tijerina stated in an opinion on behalf of himself, Chief Justice Dori Contreras and Justice Lionel Aron Peña Jr.
The deadline to place a name on the November ballot is Aug. 29.
However, even before the appeals court rendered its decision on Wednesday, Treviño’s legal team had taken their arguments to the Texas Supreme Court.
They sought more time to furnish the appeals court with the totality of trial exhibits and transcripts produced during the three-week trial, which they described in court filings as spanning “over sixteen volumes,” including more than 1,500 pages worth of exhibits.
The trial transcripts were expected to exceed 6,000 pages, according to court filings.
On Aug. 16, the high court denied both Treviño’s request to pause the appeals process, as well as her request to issue a so-called “writ of mandamus” that would have ordered the 13th Court to extend its deadlines.
Subsequently, the appellate justices declared that it is “well-settled” that “the election contest becomes moot, and the issues are no longer justiciable” if the court doesn’t have enough time to weigh evidence or decide “the validity or invalidity” of the case.
But for Rick Salinas, the Mission attorney who served as Treviño’s lead counsel, the appellate court’s decision is beyond baffling.
“It’s very disturbing,” Salinas said via phone Wednesday.
Treviño’s attorneys had anticipated the appeals court might not have enough time to examine the trial record. As such they operated under the assumption that a dismissal would cause the election outcome to revert back to its original status quo — where Treviño was the victor.
“Since (Treviño) won the race, she’s got a vested property interest right in the result. And if it’s moot, she stays on the ballot,” Salinas said.
Instead, the justices found Treviño’s appeal moot, but not the trial that had stripped her of her victory.
Salinas said the justices’ interpretation of what is moot flies in the face of legal precedent, adding Treviño will again seek input from the Texas Supreme Court.
TRIAL FINDINGS
Back in Edinburg, however, Justice Tijerina’s opinion described how the appeals court was still in the process of receiving trial records when it handed down its opinion on Wednesday.
He further described how Bañales, the trial judge, submitted a 100-page “findings of fact and conclusions of law” on Monday morning.
In the document, Bañales provides a laundry list of conclusions that the JP primary was rife with corruption, among them that:
>> Treviño’s campaign workers and volunteers told people who to vote for;
>> Treviño’s court clerk physically pressed a button for a voter “and therefore this voter did not actually vote;”
>> Treviño’s court clerk threatened an intellectually disabled man “he would get in trouble with the law” if he did not vote for Treviño;
>> Nearly half of the voters (48%) at the Sullivan City polling place received assistance in casting their ballots; and
>> Treviño’s campaign workers, and even her own adult children, assisted voters who neither needed nor qualified for assistance under newer provisions of the Texas Election Code.
Bañales also addressed an argument Treviño’s attorneys made at trial — that a 2021 amendment of the Texas Election Code limiting how assistance can be provided to voters is, itself, a violation of federal elections law.
Bañales disqualified dozens of ballots after finding that the voters who had cast them failed to meet the narrow qualifications to receive assistance, such as being physically disabled or illiterate.
As part of his legal conclusions, Bañales stated Treviño had failed to provide convincing enough evidence that those voters would have qualified to receive assistance under the Voting Rights Act either.
Bañales further stated Treviño’s attorneys failed to prove that a federal court injunction prohibiting the enforcement of those stricter portions of Texas’ election statute held any power over his decision making.
That’s despite language in the June 2022 injunction clearly stating Texas “shall distribute notice to all county elections departments clarifying that they are not to enforce” three specific portions of the state election statute, including the new limitations on voter assistance.
Instead, Bañales referred to the justice of the peace race — which was administered by the Hidalgo County Elections Department — as a “private election.”
“(Treviño) provides no authority to this Court that the orders issued by the Federal Court against the State of Texas are binding on private election contests filed under the Texas Election Code,” Bañales stated.
ARGUMENTS QUASHED
But just as Treviño was unable to present her side of the story during trial because Bañales disqualified nearly all 170 witnesses she had subpoenaed, she won’t be able to argue her case before the appellate justices, either.
Treviño hoped to show Bañales that her opponent, Segovia, had engaged in the exact same kinds of activities at the polls that she had, just not well enough to win.
Despite her attorney’s assertions that the assistance voters received wasn’t illegal, Treviño’s rebuttal case was set to hinge largely on the theory that Segovia’s campaign had assisted far more voters than she had.
Treviño’s lead attorney, Salinas, viewed it as a sort of numbers game, saying he had evidence that Segovia’s campaign had provided assistance to around 500 people.
If Bañales was going to disqualify and then subtract ballots from Treviño’s tally, then Salinas wanted the judge to similarly subtract ballots from Segovia’s tally.
Ultimately, the judge disqualified three of Segovia’s ballots, a sum nowhere close to the 78 he disqualified from Treviño.
That resulted in Treviño’s 31-vote margin of victory dwindling to a deficit of 44 votes in favor of her challenger.
Treviño never got a chance to meaningfully impact that arithmetic because Bañales prohibited her from calling the majority of her witnesses, citing improper disclosures of what their testimony would be.
Similarly, the 13th Court of Appeals cut Treviño’s arguments off at the knees when it decided that the seven business days between Wednesday and Aug. 29 was too short a timeframe to give the evidence its due.
According to the justices, the only real choice that time crunch gave them was to dismiss Treviño’s appeal, regardless of whether her arguments may have been compelling.
Despite Treviño’s appeal including “multifarious issues and sub-issues,” the court was forced to dismiss it “‘even when the contestant may have good cause or grounds for the contest,’” Tijerina stated, quoting precedent from a previous election contest.
Still, the appeals court couldn’t leave off its opinion some hint as to where the justices’ thoughts on Treviño’s appeal may have lain.
“Nonetheless, the trial court’s findings of fact shed light on the events that transpired at trial, which are exceedingly troubling to the sanctity of our electoral process and undermine the purity of the ballot,” Tijerina stated.