New Appeal: Killer still has victim’s money

A new convoluted Hidalgo County capital murder twist just resurfaced last week and it’s worth another look, so maddening was this case. Still is, thanks to our court system.

More than 10 years after former Comfort House Hospice Administrator Monica Melissa Patterson murdered 96-year-old Martin Knell in his north McAllen home one bright sunny morning in January 2015, the proceeds from her murder victim’s wealthy estate are still locked up nice and tight in a trust account, with her name still listed as beneficiary.

American Jurisprudence.

Knell’s family still can’t lay claim to the estate because the county probate court has refused (unspoken) to probate Knell’s Last Will & Testament until Patterson’s endless criminal appeals have been run through the legal ringer. Now more than a decade after the old WW II vet was violently murdered, his surviving Will is still left in limbo.

“What if we probate the decedent’s Will, and her murder, theft convictions are overturned?”

They won’t be, trust me. 

Anyone with the ability to look objectively at the evidence/testimony presented during Patterson’s October 2017 murder/theft trial has to walk away convinced, yes, she killed Martin “Marty” Knell.

For his money. Greed, pure and simple. The jury agreed.

Not only that, but she stole the nonprofit hospice where she worked, The Comfort House, blind, and used its money for fun stuff – trips to Vegas with her lover and mother-inlaw (they sat in different seats, don’t ask), expensive parties, fun, expensive clothes, expensive meals, while treating the Comfort House staff, the people who did the heavy lifting, caring for dying residents, like second-class citizens. 

When Melissa Patterson was arrested in August 2015 and charged with Knell’s murder, the Comfort House was stone cold broke – couldn’t make the next payroll – thanks to her very sticky fingers, which had finally spent all the nonprofit’s money right under the noses of its board of directors.

One director, the board chair, a family friend, also served, then, as chief justice on the 13th Court of Criminal Appeals.

No, you really can’t make up this stuff.

A New Motion

Now Melissa Patterson’s appellate attorney just filed a writ of habeas corpus last week in a federal court (Western District of Texas), the Waco Division, which is relatively close to the women’s state prison she now calls home.

Filing a writ of habeas corpus in a federal court after a conviction in a state court, after exhausting all state appeals, is simply a way for a convict to assert that something fundamentally guaranteed to them by the U.S. Constitution was violated during their arrest, trial, sentencing, or appellate process at the state level.

Meaning, in other words, Patterson’s constitutional rights have been violated.

Uh-huh. What about the constitutional rights of her murder victim, his family might ask, who was still healthy at 96, still working out, relatively mentally sharp until, that is, Patterson crossed his path and started gaslighting him past the point of no return.

Goodbye, Marty, what’s your hurry?

The only rights violated in the case assigned to her name belong to the man she murdered, not to mention his family, which have had to suffer through 10-plus years and of watching this Patterson train wreck unfold.

Two TV networks – Investigation Discovery and Oxygen – both did a true-crime show on the case. One or both shows can still be pulled up on Youtube. Anyone can walk away after watching either show with the simple, obvious conclusion – Yes, she’s as guilty as sin.

Old Appeals, Conviction

With regard to her initial appeal, the trial court, Noe Gonzalez’s 370th state District Court (Hidalgo Co.), sat on her first appeal for months on end.

Then, the 13th Court of Appeals sat on it for months, years on end.

Then, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals sat on it for months…and months…on end.

Then Patterson’s conviction went back once again to the original trial court (Noe Gonzalez) where it sat for more months on end.

Then back to the top court. Like a bouncing ping pong ball that stops and starts, but keeps on bouncing.

Along the way, her appellate attorney came up with new “facts.”

Like the guy who was suddenly in her car the time of her murder and could say categorically that she wasn’t at the murder scene.

Yeah, but, uh, where was he when, you know, her highly publicized 2017 murder trial was underway?

In fact, to show how strong Patterson’s defense was, take a guess as to the number of witnesses her legal eagles called for her defense during her capital murder/theft trial?

Zero. 

In fact, her only defense was to have her four high-profile local criminal defense attorneys -- Rick Salinas, O. Rene Flores, Calixtro Villarreal, and Fernando Mancias attack every single witness the prosecution called.

Eliciting testimony from state witnesses who had nothing to do with the murder but were only testifying to relevant facts – like Comfort House finances. Just keep bombarding them with meaningless questions until the judge finally said, enough, lets’ move on.

There just went half the morning. 

For five weeks in the fall of 2017, the trial dragged on.

Finally, just last month, more than seven years after Patterson’s convictions (murder and thefts – four felony counts), the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied it.

Then she turned right around, approximately three weeks ago, and took her bag of legal tricks to the fed bench.

Her New Appeal

So what’s the point of her new appeal?

Well, basically, her attorneys allegedly didn’t do their job during the jury trial, according to Patterson’s new Writ. For example, there were times when they should have called their own expert witnesses but did not.

Plus, says her appellate attorney, Patterson’s murder victim, 96-year-old McAllen resident and WW II veteran Martin Knell, died of natural causes.

Meaning, presumably, that the plastic bag pulled down over his head while he was being forcibly held down in his kitchen chair, gasping for breath, old and weak, had nothing whatsoever to do with his demise nearly seven years ago?

The broken ribs that showed up during the autopsy, the bruises on his chest and back where it was pressed into the chair while he was being murdered? Au natural.

Murder accomplice recants 

If Patterson’s murder accomplice, Angel Mario Garza, has recanted the voluntary confession given the night of his arrest in August 2015 — as pointed out in her many appeals (including her recent fed writ of habeas corpus) — Patterson’s innocence still has more mountains to climb.

First, he helped Patterson murder Knell for a promise of money (renumeration), but now there is evidence that he initially said otherwise.

Garza just made up the details in his confession, in line with the testimony coming from Knell’s caretaker, and it all luckily fell into place.

The Thirteenth Court initially ruled against her appeal, taking up 58 pages to explain how and why the evidence had convicted her.

So many facts to this case: When “Marty” Knell first showed up at the Comfort House in late 2013 after his wife had been admitted there, Patterson couldn’t stand him. Called the cops on him for being a disturbance.

Then, when she found out he had an estate north of a million dollars, suddenly, surprise, “Marty,” as he was known, became her new best friend forever (BFF). Even had him over at her house.

“Sit a spell, friend.” 

So much so, that within a short period of time, approximately three months, “Missy” had convinced “Marty” to sign a new Last Will & Testament, listing her as the sole beneficiary. A local attorney drafted it, executed it.

Patterson got “Marty” to also name her on his bank accounts as the Payee on Death.

You know, should he, unexpectedly pass away.

From natural causes. But uh-oh. When he discovered that she had also included her name on his stock certificates, without his knowledge, and then told her to remove her name, suddenly he ends up dead less than two days later?

The only reason, say her attorneys, cardiac arrest.

The Real Motive

Knell was murdered to clear Patterson’s way to his money, buried, and then his caretaker came forward about a month after the murder. Her conscience was getting to her, she told the Texas Rangers, and even though she was scared, she was there the day of the murder, and knew who did it, and she was willing to testify to the facts: Patterson and her accomplice, a guy by the name of Angel Mario Garza, killed Marty Knell, and then told her to lie about it. If she told anyone, there would be consequences.

After an approximate seven-month investigation, the Texas Rangers, working with the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Department, served arrest warrants on both Patterson and Garza.

It didn’t take long for Garza to confess to taking part in the murder of Marty Knell.

Patterson had promised him money, Garza said, if he would help her kill Knell. He held down the 96-year-old while Patterson smothered him with a plastic garbage bag. In Garza’s written confession, which he later unsuccessfully tried to recant, he said that in the end, Patterson hadn’t paid him what she had promised.

Pinché? 

Garza’s confession wasn’t admitted as evidence during trial, but by that time, the district attorney’s office had Patterson on the ropes. There was just too much evidence to overcome.

By then, Knell’s body had been exhumed, and one of the most experienced medical examiners performed the postmortem.

According to Patterson’s federal appeal, this same female medical examiner proved incompetent in the Knell investigation.

No matter, the verdicts — guilty on all four counts.

More than 10 years later, Knell’s family still awaits justice.

While Patterson and her appellate team continue throwing mud at the wall, hoping something will stick.