Cold case closer to resolution

TWO-DAY SERIES OF RELATED STORIES:
Part 1 -- Woman's murder case reopened after years of questions
Part 2 -- Conflicting stories, hesitant witnesses cloud cold case

EDINBURG -- A 34-year-old Mexican Mafia member was sentenced to 60 years in prison Monday for his role in what was once one of Hidalgo County's most baffling cold homicide cases.

Luis Carlos Mares pleaded guilty to participating in the 2003 murder of 21-year-old Ann Marie Garcia, whose body was found strangled, abused and dumped on the banks of a Delta-area canal.

He is the second defendant to admit he played a part in the crime.

As part of Mares' plea deal, prosecutors agreed to reduce the charge against him from capital murder to murder and recommended he be allowed to serve his sentence concurrently with punishments for other crimes in Cameron and Webb counties.

His lawyers - Jaime Alemán and Ricardo Flores - did not return phone calls Tuesday.

"I'm just glad that there's finally resolution," said Sgt. Rafael Garza, an Hidalgo County sheriff's deputy and the lead investigator on Garcia's cold case.

The young woman's death puzzled authorities for years, until Garza tracked Mares down in 2005.

An inmate in the Starr County Jail at the time, Mares confessed to having a chance encounter with Garcia when she happened to be at a drug stash house between Rio Grande City and Garciasville that he and some accomplices raided on Oct. 22, 2003.

Garcia and Mares had dated, and she recognized him immediately, Garza said. Mares' accomplices feared she could implicate him in the crime and that that, in turn, could put targets on their own backs.

Mares told investigators he and his fellow gang members kidnapped Garcia and took her back to the home of their leader, who allegedly ordered her death.

It remains unclear whether Mares or Juan Adames, one of his co-defendants, actually killed Garcia. Each gave statements implicating the other one.

In Mares' version of events, Adames attempted to inject Garcia with enough heroin to kill her. But when she persistently clung to life, he strangled her with her own shoelace.

Adames, 56, claimed he watched Mares rape and choke the woman before dumping her body.

Both men were charged with capital murder along with a third man - Jesus "Cricket" Gonzalez Jr., 26 - under the law of parties, a statute that holds someone just as accountable for playing an indirect role in a crime as those who actually committed it.

Adames took his case to trial in 2006. Despite reports that his fellow gang members tried to intimidate jurors, he was convicted later that year and is serving a life sentence in a state penitentiary.

Gonzalez still awaits trial, Garza said.

Mares is currently serving a 60-year prison sentence for the murder of a Harlingen woman, whose remains were found on a Willacy County ranch in November 2003. Prosecutors alleged that killing was also gang-related.

"Hopefully, (Ann Marie's) family can find closure in this," Garza said Tuesday. "May she rest in peace."
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Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.