Remember Marco Antonio Gonzalez, the Cameron County Corrections department guard who shot and killed Ivan Reyes, a co-worker at the Cameron County Rucker-Carrizales Detention Center, on June 4, 2014 at his former lover's home on the 200 block of Orchid Path, off McAllen Road in northwest Brownsville?
Although testimony during his trial in November 2016 indicated that Gonzalez has shot Reyes in the chest and then shot him again at point-blamk range in the head as he tried to crawl out of the house, defense attorneys Ernesto Gamez and his daughter Erin convinced the jury that Gonzalez had acted in self defense and was not in a "good state of mind" and acquitted him of the murder.
Then, in a later trial, Gonzalez was charged with nine counts stemming from a six-hour standoff with law enforcement where he traded shots with police, sheriff and Department of Public Safety officers and tried to shoot the bother of his former lover Monica Robles.
After shooting Reyes, Gonzalez shot at the officers and struck a SWAT vehicle, shattering a mirror. It wasn't until after his hostage managed to escape that officers captured Gonzales, who suffered minor injuries in the incident in an alleged suicide attempt.
But if the Reyes family though that Gonzales had victimized them by killing their son, they were not prepared for the way they were victimized by the justice system in Cameron County.
After Gamez managed to get him acquitted of the capital murder charges, he then faced 11 counts of aggravated assault of a public servant. The defense argued that two of the 11 counts constituted double jeopardy and Asst. DA Peter Gilman did not object, settling for the nine other counts.
The jury found Gonzales guilty on the nine counts and that's when instructions by Judge Elia Cornejo-Lopez muddied the waters even further.
In her initial charge to the jury, Cornejo told the jury they would be the ones to decide whether the sentences on the nine charges would run consecutively or concurrently. When Gamez objected and asked for a mistrial, she denied it but then instructed the jury that it would be up to her to decide how Gonzales would serve his sentences.
That was not correct either, as courts are bound by state law on sentencing if the charges stemmed from the same incident.
They jury, thinking that by finding Gonzales guilty of the nine charges and assessing a five-year sentence on each, he would get 45 years in prison. When they found out that under state law – contrary to what the judge told them that it would be up to her – Gonzales would serve all of the five-year terms concurrently and would be released after serving only five years with credit for time served (two years), they protested to the DA and the court, with no avail.
Local police and other law enforcement officers who were targeted by Gonzales during the standoff protested the short sentence and both the DA Luis V. Saenz and Cornejo-Lopez blamed each other for the lenient sentence for his conviction on the eight counts of aggravated assault of a public servant and the one for retaliation.
Last May 24, the TDCJ Parole Review Board stated that: The record indicates that the instant offense has elements of brutality, violence, assaultive behavior, or conscious selection of victims' vulnerability indicating a conscious disregard for lives, safety, or property of others, such that the offender poses a continuing threat to public safety."
As a result of the denial by the parole board, Gonzales' release date is still scheduled for June 15, 2019.
But the TDCJ board is scheduled to consider Gonzalez's case again this May 24 and the possibility exists that he could be released before this 2019 release date.
The Reyes family is protesting the release of their son's killer, feeling that he was wrongly acquitted in the murder of their son, never charged with kidnapping Robles or attempted murder of her brother, and that the five-year sentence was an aberration of justice. They have sent the TDCJ their objections to his release and are hoping that he will remain to serve his full sentence.
"This man has literally got away with murder and we feel like we have also been victimized by the justice system in Cameron County," said the victim's father Carlos Reyes. "Not only should he serve his full sentence, but we feel that as a naturalized citizen, he has not complied with the oath he took when he was granted citizenship to obey the laws of this county and feel he should be deported before he kills and terrorizes the public again."
Although testimony during his trial in November 2016 indicated that Gonzalez has shot Reyes in the chest and then shot him again at point-blamk range in the head as he tried to crawl out of the house, defense attorneys Ernesto Gamez and his daughter Erin convinced the jury that Gonzalez had acted in self defense and was not in a "good state of mind" and acquitted him of the murder.
Then, in a later trial, Gonzalez was charged with nine counts stemming from a six-hour standoff with law enforcement where he traded shots with police, sheriff and Department of Public Safety officers and tried to shoot the bother of his former lover Monica Robles.
After shooting Reyes, Gonzalez shot at the officers and struck a SWAT vehicle, shattering a mirror. It wasn't until after his hostage managed to escape that officers captured Gonzales, who suffered minor injuries in the incident in an alleged suicide attempt.But if the Reyes family though that Gonzales had victimized them by killing their son, they were not prepared for the way they were victimized by the justice system in Cameron County.
After Gamez managed to get him acquitted of the capital murder charges, he then faced 11 counts of aggravated assault of a public servant. The defense argued that two of the 11 counts constituted double jeopardy and Asst. DA Peter Gilman did not object, settling for the nine other counts.
The jury found Gonzales guilty on the nine counts and that's when instructions by Judge Elia Cornejo-Lopez muddied the waters even further.
In her initial charge to the jury, Cornejo told the jury they would be the ones to decide whether the sentences on the nine charges would run consecutively or concurrently. When Gamez objected and asked for a mistrial, she denied it but then instructed the jury that it would be up to her to decide how Gonzales would serve his sentences.
That was not correct either, as courts are bound by state law on sentencing if the charges stemmed from the same incident.
They jury, thinking that by finding Gonzales guilty of the nine charges and assessing a five-year sentence on each, he would get 45 years in prison. When they found out that under state law – contrary to what the judge told them that it would be up to her – Gonzales would serve all of the five-year terms concurrently and would be released after serving only five years with credit for time served (two years), they protested to the DA and the court, with no avail.
Local police and other law enforcement officers who were targeted by Gonzales during the standoff protested the short sentence and both the DA Luis V. Saenz and Cornejo-Lopez blamed each other for the lenient sentence for his conviction on the eight counts of aggravated assault of a public servant and the one for retaliation.
Last May 24, the TDCJ Parole Review Board stated that: The record indicates that the instant offense has elements of brutality, violence, assaultive behavior, or conscious selection of victims' vulnerability indicating a conscious disregard for lives, safety, or property of others, such that the offender poses a continuing threat to public safety."
As a result of the denial by the parole board, Gonzales' release date is still scheduled for June 15, 2019.
But the TDCJ board is scheduled to consider Gonzalez's case again this May 24 and the possibility exists that he could be released before this 2019 release date.
The Reyes family is protesting the release of their son's killer, feeling that he was wrongly acquitted in the murder of their son, never charged with kidnapping Robles or attempted murder of her brother, and that the five-year sentence was an aberration of justice. They have sent the TDCJ their objections to his release and are hoping that he will remain to serve his full sentence.
"This man has literally got away with murder and we feel like we have also been victimized by the justice system in Cameron County," said the victim's father Carlos Reyes. "Not only should he serve his full sentence, but we feel that as a naturalized citizen, he has not complied with the oath he took when he was granted citizenship to obey the laws of this county and feel he should be deported before he kills and terrorizes the public again."
8 comments:
So this due is almost out, who do you blame? So for the Family of Mr. Reyes the only one to blame for all this mess is judge elia cornhole and no one else, she screwed up this sentencing on this case, but hey she is not running anymore, pinche pasona.
siphoned, syphon, bleed, drain, suck, empty, deplete, flush, purge, sifoneado, chupon, mamar, usan un sifón para trasvasar el dinero.
I fight over pussy by two macho Nacos. One has to win and one has to lose, pues!
Lmao!! True words Chucky!!
Blogger 1 is on target. The one to blame is the judge who probably did not know the difference between consecutive and concurrently. She was never a bright student in school but I better shut up or she is going to place my name on the list of those she wants fired because they looked crossed-eyed
at her baby daughter. How come she didn't get reprimanded by the legal board of lawyers for such a boo-boo! I heard she was hiring Marco as her body guard cause so many people in Brownsville can't stand her fat-guts.
Wow out already, and they gave the fajita man 50 year, and this guy killed someone cause he was rejected by the gf, she is the one that should had gotten shot, if anyone was to die. This man is a piece of shit. but Karma is a bitch.
This guy is not Hindu or a Buddhist and karma has nothing to do with justice here on earth. Justics system plain and simple failed.
The Democrats will elect Elia again. You just watch. She’s part of the Sylvia machine. And you all do it to this community over and over again and then bitch.
Thanks a lot.
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