Lawyers dipping beaks into $$$

By G. Romero Wendorf

When 96-year-old WWII vet Martin Knell was smothered to death inside his north McAllen residence Jan. 28, 2015, his estate was worth an estimated one million dollars, according to court records. But how much money is now left, that’s the question. And how much is going to be left once the attorneys’ work is done “caring” for it in Probate Court?

In August 2015, two people were arrested and charged with Knell’s murder: Monica Melissa Patterson and her alleged accomplice, Angel Mario Garza. The latter has since confessed to the murder and fngered Patterson, 48, as the person who told him she’d pay him money out of Knell’s Estate if he carried out the heinous act.

Patterson’s attorney, Ricardo Salinas, has said his client is innocent of the charge against her. And he hasn’t retreated from his position.

“What I’d like to know is why did the (Hidalgo) sheriff’s department initially charge this guy (Angel Mario Garza) with (simple) murder as opposed to capital murder? Everyone knew from the beginning they were talking about a capital murder case. I think it’s so they could use it as some form of leverage on him, to get him to say things that weren’t true.”

Texas doesn’t describe murder in degrees as do some other states. There is no first-degree murder (pre-meditated, intentional) or second-degree murder (un-planned, but still intentional) in the Lone Star State. Rather, first-degree murder is called capital murder, and second-degree murder is simply called murder. 

Capital murder carries with it the death penalty (capital punishment), while simple murder does not.

“What I’d also like to know is how many times did he (Garza) say he didn’t know anything until he finally gave in?” Salinas asked during a recent phone interview.

But aren’t all interrogations videotaped during the entire process?

“No,” said Salinas. “They should be. Tell someone that the (simple) murder charge against them can be changed to capital murder if they don’t say what investigators want to hear, and that’s going to make a lot of people say things they wouldn’t normally say.”

The criminal complaint reads simply that Garza gave criminal investigators a voluntary confession, implicating both himself and Patterson in the murder of Martin Knell, and said that Patterson promised him a share of the proceeds from Knell’s Estate. The criminal complaint says that besides the caregiver’s testimony, investigators also have other evidence at their disposal that places Patterson and Garza at the Knell residence the time of the murder is alleged to have taken place. 

So despite Salinas’s implications of what criminal investigators may or may not have done to get a confession out of Angel Mario Garza, if his client, Melissa Patterson, is indicted by a grand jury (Garza has already been indicted on capital murder charges), the evidence he has to combat during a trial seems challenging, to say the least.

Salinas said he’d like to look at the evidence the state has against his client, but has no access to it since Patterson has yet to be indicted. When that may happen, he said he still doesn’t know.

Besides Garza’s finger pointing and the testimony by a caretaker that Patterson and Garza are responsible for Knell’s murder, there’s the circumstantial evidence against her regarding a civil matter. Shortly before the murder, Patterson accompanied Knell to the McAllen law offce of Mark Talbot in approximately December 2014 where the victim’s only child, a male adult, was removed from Knell’s last Will and Testament and replaced with Patterson’s name as the major benefciary to his sizeable estate. She also got a legal power of attorney while she was there, which gave her complete control of Knell’s estate, including his home, where the locks to his front and back doors were soon changed.

According to the caretaker’s testimony, mentioned in the criminal complaint against Patterson, sometime in early January, Knell apparently had a change of heart about his changing of the Will, telling Patterson at one point, according to the criminal complaint, “I want my money, young lady.” Shortly after that, 37 days after the changing of the Will, he was murdered. Knell’s body was later exhumed after the caretaker fnally told the Texas Rangers what she allegedly knew, and an autopsy performed by the county’s medical examiner confrmed that he was indeed a homicide victim and not simply some old man who had died of natural causes.

The Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Department has jurisdiction over the case, but the Texas Rangers are also involved in the continuing investigation. According to Hidalgo County Sheriff “Eddie” Guerra, they are still following other avenues that may be related to the crime.

The hourly rates

Meanwhile, there are civil lawyers also at work. One attorney, Ricardo Gonzalez, has been named Temporary Administrator of Martin Knell’s Estate. By law, he is entitled to a five-percent commission on all amounts that he either receives or pays out while serving as the administrator. Apparently, however, this job is more complex than most, given the circumstances of Knell’s murder and the questions still surrounding it. Meaning, he believes the five-percent commission isn’t adequate compensation. As such, he has hired the services of Attorney Antonio Villeda who filed a motion on his behalf last month in the Probate Court of Hidalgo County, asking that Ricardo Gonzalez be allowed to charge the Knell Estate his normal hourly rate of $250 “to handle all matters that are normally not associated with the administration of the Estate, to be paid after submitted to and approved by the Court.”

Representing Knell’s son, Mark Knell, in the civil matter is Daniel Gurwitz from Atlas and Hall. In April of 2015, the son filed a civil action against Patterson, contesting her right to his father’s Estate. The lead attorney defending Patterson in the civil action is Terry Key with the Weslaco-based Jones, Galligan, Key & Lozano law firm.

In Probate Court last month, Ricardo Gonzalez’s $250-per-hour rate to handle the Knell Estate on top of the five-percent commission was approved by the Probate Judge Homero Garza.

This month, Gonzalez presented his first Application to Pay Attorney’s Fees. But it seems that somewhere along the way, he has hired Attorney Antonio Villeda with the Villeda Law Group to do the hourly work for the Knell Estate. In other words, the same attorney who filed the motion in Probate Court asking the judge to allow Ricardo Gonzalez to collect extra monies on top of the five-percent commission he would normally get, is now collecting the $250 per hour working on the side for his client.

Confused? So am I.

In a Dec. 14, 2015 court filing, Ricardo Gonzalez asked the Probate Court to approve having the Knell Estate pay Villeda $5,852.90. “Which sum is reasonable under all the circumstances,” writes Attorney Gonzalez.

Part of the billing includes two hourly rates: $250 and $150.

For example, on Nov. 13, 2015, Villeda worked on some emails and then went to Ricardo Gonzalez’s office to pick up some documents and confer with him about the Patterson case. Charge to the Knell Estate: $240.

Three days later, Nov. 16, a few more emails reviewed, another phone conference with “Ric.” Total charge to the Knell Estate: “$195.

Actually, Nov. 16th turned into a relative legal bonanza. Aside from the $195, Villeda also read a motion to “quash,” sent an email to Gonzalez and also had a phone conversation with him. Charge to the Knell Estate: $150.

Same day: Villeda started working on “response to the agreed motion to seal records.” Apparently that took 1.5 hour. Total charge to the Knell Estate: $375.

Nov. 16th, quick 30-minute phone conversation only cost the Estate $125.

Then came the heavy lifting, also done on Nov. 16th -- $425 to do “legal research to generate arguments by which to respond to the Agreed Motion to Seal Records;” and $800 to confer with Mark Talbot, Ricardo Gonzalez, via both the phone and emails, and review a draft of response.

By the time the month of November 2015 was closed out, the Knell Estate owed attorneys a total of $5,852.90.

Not counting the five-percent commission.

With the Knell murder case expected to last a long time, the question becomes: how much money is going to be paid out of the Knell Estate to the temporary administrator, Ricardo Gonzalez, and his co-counsel, Antonio Villeda?

Note: Thanks to KGBT-TV/ValleyCentral.com’s Dave Hendricks for his help with this story.