Trial moved to January?
Tue, 2016-08-23 21:03
News Staff
Melissa Patterson murder case
By G. Romero Wendorf
EDINBURG - During a status conference hearing Monday in Judge Noe Gonzalez’s 370th state District Court, it was announced that the Monica Melissa Patterson murder trial, and that of her alleged accomplice, Angel Mario Garza, who has already allegedly confessed to the heinous crime, has been pushed back to 2017.
The trial was set to begin Sept. 19, but now won’t begin until next January.
The district attorney’s office was the one who asked for the postponement. The defense side raised no issue with the prosecutor’s request, according to a source this newspaper spoke to who was in court for the hearing.
Garza, an illegal immigrant with a checkered past, appeared in court in his county-issued orange jail jumpsuit looking nervous and scared; while Patterson, 49, currently free, albeit under a form of house arrest, thanks to her and her family’s ability to secure several bonds worth approximately $700,000, came to court in civilian attire, pants and blouse, looking rather nonchalant, according to our source.
The demeanor between the two – Garza and Patterson – was striking, said our source.
Garza looked scared and worried throughout the approximate 20-minute court proceeding, half slumped over the courtroom bench in front of where he was sitting, shifting his focus back and forth between the judge and Patterson while listening to his English/Spanish translator.
He must have felt some sense of déjà vu. Because it was in the same courtroom, Noe Gonzalez’s 370th, that Angel Mario Garza stood