Escapes chance of death penalty; DA goes for life without parole

By G. Romero Wendorf

 

PHARR -- Given the fact that the 48-year-old capital murder defendant, Monica Melissa Patterson, has deep political ties in this community, anything short of the DA seeking the death penalty in her upcoming capital murder trial was going to viewed as being somehow politically motivated.

 

After all, her maiden name is Palacios, meaning that her father is a former county commissioner and San Juan mayor and PSJA board trustee; her mom, a retired high-ranking PSJA school administrator after whom a school is named; her uncle is a longtime mayor of Pharr; and her brother is a county-court-at-law judge.

 

But Hidalgo County District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez says even though it was a “given” going into this upcoming trial that some people were going to scream politics – that just isn’t true.