Attorney lays out strategy to win her an acquittal
Tue, 2016-09-27 21:58
News Staff
Melissa Patterson murder trial
By G. Romero Wendorf
In January 2015, 96-year-old WWII vet Martin “Marty” Knell was suffocated to death inside his north-side McAllen home while sitting in his recliner. Post-mortem bruises to his head and torso showed that Knell didn’t go down without a fight despite his age.
The question still to be proven or disproven in the 370th state District Court of Noe Gonzalez: who orchestrated his murder?
The trial is expected to take place either next January or February. It was originally scheduled for this month, but multiple postponements have pushed back the date. In the upcoming capital murder trial of the woman accused of his murder -- former PSJA High grad and former Comfort House (hospice) Administrator Monica Melissa Patterson, 49, with familial ties to well-known past and present politicians (the Palacios family of Pharr) -- her legal team has to overcome a big mountain of evidence stacked against their client:
• Her alleged co-conspirator, Angel Mario Garza, has already given a sworn statement implicating Patterson as the mastermind behind Knell’s murder. The motion on the part of his public defender to keep his statement hidden from the jury, if and when the case goes to trial, hasn’t yet proven successful. Garza is in this country illegally and has a criminal record tied to possession of illegal drugs.
• There is solid evidence that Knell was suffering from some degree of dementia, and yet Patterson took him to the McAllen law office of Mark Talbot 37 days before his murder where he signed over the bulk of his approximate million-dollar estate to her. He also gave her power of attorney, thus giving her complete control over his entire affairs.
• There is alleged evidence, thanks to cell phone technology, that places Patterson at Knell’s home at the approximate time of his murder.
• The day of Knell’s murder, Patterson allegedly removed several hundred thousand dollars from the victim’s bank account.
• At the time of Knell’s murder, Patterson was in financial trouble.