EDINBURG — A woman accused of capital murder is back in jail after McAllen police found her at the scene of a New Year’s Day stabbing.
Monica Ann Winkle Gomez, a 37-year-old McAllen resident who had been out on bond on the capital murder charge, is back in custody after lying about her identity to officers investigating a stabbing at an apartment where authorities found methamphetamine.
Gomez is one of five suspects charged with the June 2017 slaying of 41-year-old Nicholas Anthony Bazan, who was found dead in a backyard in the 1400 block of West Vine Avenue from a single gunshot wound.
His front pants pockets were turned inside out and authorities believe robbery of cash and methamphetamine was the motive of the murder.
Gomez had been out on bond for more than a year leading up to the first day of 2020.
That all changed at 7:43 a.m. when a man called police to tell them he had been assaulted and stabbed.
According to a probable cause affidavit for Gomez on a charge of failure to identify, a man named Rinaldo Garza had placed the man in a headlock and slammed him to the ground.
That’s when Garza’s brother, Pierre Soler, came at the man with a knife, the charging document stated.
“Pierre put the knife to the back of his neck,” according to the affidavit.
That man reached toward the knife to take it from the back of his neck to prevent it from being slashed when he hand was cut, according to police.
The struggle continued until the man was able to break away and yell for help, before calling police, the charging document stated.
Police arrived and took the men into custody and found Gomez inside the apartment, according to the affidavit. When asked what her name was, she provided a false one, the affidavit stated.
The officers suspect she was lying because they had “dealt” with her before.
During a Jan. 9 hearing, state District Judge Noe Gonzalez said the officers who arrested her for failure to identify were the same officers who arrested her for capital murder.
Gomez had appeared in court with her defense attorney, Carlos Ortegon, in an attempt to have her released back onto bond.
Ortegon told Gonzalez that Gomez was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, to which Gonzalez said that is the same defense she has for the capital murder.
“After awhile you start to think it can’t be a coincidence,” Gonzalez said.
As for the apartment where the stabbing occurred, investigators found methamphetamine, prescription pills and bath salts, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Gomez remains jailed.
