While the COVID-19 pandemic grounded life in Hidalgo County to a halt in 2020, crime here continued.
The city of McAllen faced tragedy when two police officers were shot and killed in the early part of summer. In the midst of the pandemic, McAllen police and the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office worked together to track down a man they accuse of kidnapping and brutally murdering his ex-wife. A Sullivan City commissioner died during a shootout with authorities at his house after police responded for a report of domestic violence.
The county also experienced an increase in homicides in 2020 compared to 2019. This year, 11 law enforcement agencies in Hidalgo County investigated 29 homicide cases. In 2019, authorities investigated 20.
For the most part, authorities apprehended the people they believe are responsible for the homicides. However, there are five suspects wanted in connection to murders who have not been apprehended. In all but one of those cases, authorities have publicly said they believe those people have fled to Mexico.
There are also three homicide cases where investigators have not publicly named a suspect.
Those cases include:
- The shooting death of Brandon Lopez, 25, in La Villa on Nov. 14.
- The investigation into 23-year-old Juan Manuel Fernandez’s death, which is classified as a homicide, after his body was pulled from a Mission canal on Sept. 28.
- The Dec. 14 shooting death of a 31-year-old man in Alton on Dec. 13. Authorities there haven’t yet released his identity.
Anyone with information on Lopez’s death should call the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office while anyone with information on Fernandez’s death should call Mission police. As for the 31-year-old man killed on Dec. 13, anyone with information in the case should call Alton police.
There have also been eight police shootings in Hidalgo County in 2020, two of which have been fatal.
Here is a look a notable criminal cases in 2020 as well as significant updates on a suspect whose cases is going through the judicial system and one on a man convicted in a cold case whose fate came to a finite conclusion in 2020.
TRAGEDY IN McALLEN
McAllen police officers investigate a shooting that left two McAllen police dead on corner of Queta avenue and 35th street on Saturday, July 11, 2020, in McAllen. (Joel Martinez | [email protected])
At around 3:30 p.m. on July 11, McAllen police officers Edelmiro Garza, 45, and Ismael Chavez, 39, answered a disturbance call in the vicinity of the 3500 block of Queta Street in response to two reports of an assault inside a nearby home.
When they approached the home to investigate, 23-year-old Audon Ignacio Camarillo shot them in a manner described by police Chief Victor Rodriguez as an ambush, killing the two officers.
“They were doing their job. That is what they were supposed to do. The person was a suspect of the incident, met our officers at the door, and shot at both officers. Both officers suffered fatal wounds. They have both passed away as a result. The officers never had a chance to suspect deadly assault on them, much less death,” Rodriguez said during an emotional news conference after the killings.
Camarillo hid behind a vehicle before shooting and killing himself as other officers responded, the chief said.
The community showed an outpouring of support for the officers, their famillies and the McAllen Police Department after Garza and Chavez’s death.
It brought the tally of police officers shot and killed in Hidalgo County to four since 2019.
MELISSA BANDA
Melissa Banda
At 11:08 a.m. on Aug. 7, the McAllen Police Department issued an urgent news release. Authorities there needed help finding 37-year-old Melissa Banda, who they said had been forced into a vehicle by her ex-husband, 41-year-old Richard Ford, the day prior.
She was missing and police sought the public’s help in finding her.
A little more than 12 hours later, at 11:33 p.m., Hidalgo County Sheriff J.E. “Eddie” Guerra announced that investigators had found Banda’s body north of Donna.
Ford is accused of abducting Banda on Aug. 6 and murdering her less than an hour after kidnapping her from her house.
Authorities accuse Ford of lacerating her throat with a “very, very sharp object,” the sheriff said previously.
Investigators theorize that the investigation and prosecution of Ford will show that he planned the crime, including driving to South Padre Island after killing Banda in rural Donna and dumping her body in an effort to misdirect authorities, Rodriguez, the McAllen chief, said previously.
Cameron County law enforcement arrested Ford near Beach Access No. 5 on South Padre Island after investigators used GPS coordinates in the van he rented to track him down.
Ford is charged with aggravated kidnapping and capital murder by terror threat/other felony.
He remains jailed on $4.5 million in bonds and efforts to receive a bond reduction have failed, with one judge citing Ford’s ties to Alaska and the heinousness of the allegations against the McAllen resident.
FATAL STANDOFF
A bullet casing rests on the street neat a home were gunfire between Gabriel Salinas and law enforcement took place Friday, July 31, 2020, in Mission. (Joel Martinez | [email protected])
On the evening of July 29, at around 9:30 p.m., the beginning of a standoff in the 1400 block of Viejo Lane in Mission that would last about five hours began when police responded to a domestic disturbance and were met with gunfire.
As the violent situation began to unfold, news broke that the suspect was 39-year-old Sullivan City Commissioner Gabriel Salinas.
Throughout the night, it was learned that Salinas’ girlfriend went to the hospital for several injuries that Mission police Chief Robert Dominguez described as “knife slashes.”
A 4-year-old boy also went to the hospital with a wound consistent with a bullet grazing, Dominguez said at the time.
By 2:35 a.m. on July 30, authorities reported that the suspect was down.
Just after 4 a.m. that morning, police confirmed that the suspect was indeed Salinas, who was shot and killed after opening fire on police.
DEATH PENALTY SOUGHT
Victor Godinez appears during his arraignment on charges of capital murder of a peace officer in the death of Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Moises Sanchez in 389th state District Court in the Hidalgo County Courthouse on Monday, Oct, 7, 2019, in Edinburg. (Joel Martinez | [email protected])
On Sept. 15, the Hidalgo County District Attorney’s Office made a long-awaited announcement during a video-conferencing court hearing for a 25-year-old Edinburg man accused of murdering a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper.
If a jury convicts Victor Godinez of killing 49-year-old DPS Trooper Moises Sanchez, prosecutors will seek the death penalty.
Authorities accuse Godinez of capital murder of a peace officer over accusations that he shot Sanchez on April 6, 2019. Sanchez died months later, on Aug. 24, 2019, after surgery in Houston.
Prosecutors say Godinez shot Sanchez after the trooper responded to a car crash on North 10th Street and Freddy Gonzalez in McAllen.
A manhunt ensued and police say Godinez also shot at two Edinburg police officers, who were not injured.
He is charged with two counts of attempted capital murder of a peace officer over those allegations.
Godinez’s attorney, O. Rene Flores, has asked the judge overseeing the case to summon at least 800 people to appear for jury duty in the case.
State District Judge Letty Lopez, who’s presiding over the case, has made mention on the challenges of conducting a case of this nature during a pandemic where strict social distancing measures are in place at the courthouse.
Lopez said it’s possible jury selection may have to be held at a convention center to properly adhere to social distancing measures.
RICIN LETTERS
A copy of the letter containing ricin that Pascale Ferrier allegedly sent Sheriff Urbino “Benny” Martinez of Brooks County. (Courtesy photo)
On Sept. 19, reports began surfacing that someone had sent a letter containing the deadly poison ricin to the White House. The letter was addressed to President Donald Trump.
A few days later, authorities in Hidalgo County, including the sheriff’s office and the Mission Police Department, reported that they too received letters containing the poison.
As the story developed, it was learned that the El Valle Detention Center, the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center, the Brooks County Detention Center, the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office, the Brooks County Sheriff’s Office and the Mission Police Department all received letters containing ricin.
Authorities quickly identified the suspect in the ricin letters case as 53-year-old Canadian citizen Pascale Cecile Veronique Ferrier.
Several years ago, Mission police arrested Ferrier on a charge of unlawful possession of a gun and for overstaying her visa.
Ferrier is currently behind bars in Washington where she is facing a charge of threatening to kill the president.
On Dec. 14, a federal grand jury in Brownsville indicted Ferrier on eight counts each of prohibitions with respect to biological weapons and making threats via interstate commerce.
LONG CHAPTER CLOSED
John Bernard Feit waits for the start of the sentencing phase of his trial for the 1960 murder of Irene Garza in the 92nd state District Court Friday, Dec. 8, 2017, at the Hidalgo County Courthouse in Edinburg.
On Feb. 11, a former priest convicted of murdering a 25-year-old school teacher in 1960 died from natural causes in prison, where he was serving a life sentence.
He was 87.
A jury convicted John Bernard Feit on Dec. 8, 2017, for the April 16, 1960, murder of Irene Garza.
She never returned home after attending confession at McAllen’s Sacred Heart Catholic Church. Five days later, authorities pulled her body from a canal.
The autopsy revealed she had been beaten, raped while unconscious and asphyxiated.
