POTEET, Texas -- Mayor Lino Donato, indicted and arrested last week on charges he had improper contact with a child, was removed from his position Monday evening by the Poteet City Council.
The council voted to vacate Donato's position, as he had not been to three consecutive meetings without an excused absence. Donato was already on probation after pleading guilty less than a year ago to similar charges.
SAN ANTONIO - Several lives very well may have been saved when a man called Onstar and threatened to kill himself and others if they interfered.
Known for its road side assistance, help with directions, and emergency services, Onstar may have saved many people's lives Friday night after a New Braunfels man said something very scary to the Onstar operator.
“He stated that he's been off his medication and that he was down in San Antonio and he wanted to cause a blood bath,” said Sgt. Daniel Anders from the San Antonio Police Department.
Police were called and Onstar was able to tell them exactly where to find the man. Police confronted the man at a Lowes parking lot on the Northeast Side near I-35. The man's identity has not been release[d].
Robert Cisneros bought his truck about a month ago. Since then, some very odd things have happened.
It all started about 2 weeks ago with some landscaping bricks.
"It wasn't like they stacked them up and said here's your bricks," Cisneros said. "They actually put some time. They made it look really nice around the tree."
The problem is, Cisneros didn't order any landscaping.
No one in the neighborhood could figure out how the bricks got around the tree.
The landscaping kept the Cisneros, his family, and his neighbors guessing. That is, until Thursday morning when they all found out exactly what the bricks were doing there and the 4 reasons the thieves needed them.
Most of the lug nuts were on the lawn, but [the] wheel wells on Cisneros' truck were empty and his wheels and tires were gone. It was a screwy set of circumstances that taught the Cisneros family and their neighbors a lesson.
SAN ANTONIO -- It didn't take long or much for a murder defendant who managed to get himself thrown out of court twice this week to get tossed Friday.
Moments after Richard Jett was brought into court in a wheelchair in the 379th District Court, the defendant went off on Judge Bert Richardson."This is inhumane, man," Jett said about being restrained. "This is torture. Barbaric. Kill me now, Judge Richardson. Put me out of my misery, man. Get these bogus-a-- attorneys off my case."
SAN ANTONIO -- In a continuing effort to disrupt his murder trial, a man accused of stabbing another to death took a smelly route Thursday.
Richard Jett, accused of stabbing 80-year-old Homer Daniels to death in 2006, soiled himself and spread feces on his body just as his trial was scheduled to begin.
Jett was removed from the courtroom before proceedings began and the victim's son took the witness stand.
...
Testimony is expected to continue in the morning, but there is no word on Jett's possible presence. Previously, Jett has marked his body and face with a marker, removed and attempted to flush his clothing and lunged toward his attorney before being restrained.
SAN ANTONIO -- A 50-year-old man accused of murder arrived in court Wednesday covered with markings on his body and then lunged at a lawyer before he was forcibly removed.
The incident was the latest in courtroom disruptions by Richard Jett, who is on trial in the fatal stabbing of an 80-year-old man in 2006.
Despite informing District Judge Bert Richardson on Tuesday that he didn't want to participate in his trial, Jett arrived under heavy guard in the 379th District Court with magic marker markings on his body. It was not immediately known how Jett got the marker, since he is jailed.
A thief got away with an elderly woman's purse, keys, and wheelchair. But he may soon be caught because of what police now have.
The thief was caught on tape at a North Side Wal-Mart store. Wal-Mart has multiple cameras overlooking its store and parking lot.
"I thought it was really low stealing, someone stealing a wheelchair. Ya know?" said 78-year-old Joanne Bizzelle as she laughed.
...
Even though the cameras caught the thief in action Friday, Bizzelle would like the person who is responsible to come forward on his own.
"You're a low life...and I want my cards back," Bizzelle added.
POTEET — Poteet Mayor Lino Donato, who is currently appealing the deferred adjudication he received for pleading guilty to indecency with a child charges in October, was indicted on three new charges related to indecency with a child on Monday.
An Atascosa County grand jury charged Donato with one count each of aggravated sexual assault, a first degree felony, indecency with a child by contact, a second degree felony, and attempted indecency with a child by contact, a third degree felony, according to a list of indictments released by the Atascosa District Clerk's office.
...
Donato was being held at the Atascosa County Jail on $200,000 bond Tuesday afternoon, officials said. A registered sex offender, he has fought attempts to force him to step down from his mayor's post despite being unable to preside at city council meetings because of the terms of his probation.
SAN ANTONIO -- Police said they arrested a 19-year-old man who has illegally tagged enough to cause about $12,000 in damages.
Kevin Knable doesn't deny being a graffiti artist, but said San Antonio police arrested the wrong person and instead charged him with felony tagging.
"I say that's bulls**t," Knable said as he was being arrested by police.
A family on the southwest side is picking up the pieces after a car crashed into their house early Sunday morning.
Albert Esparza remembers being jolted out of his sleep by a sound no one expects to hear at 3:30 a.m.
"It was just like a blast," said Esparza. "Like two cars going 90 miles an hour and hitting head-on."
A 24-year-old man was shot and critically wounded by his uncle in an argument over family photos Saturday afternoon in South Bexar County, authorities said.
Bexar County Sheriff’s detective Buck Buchanan said an afternoon argument over photos escalated to the point that a 42-year-old man, believed to be the uncle of the shooting victim, grabbed a 22-caliber rifle and fired at least once.
The victim, who was not immediately identified, was hit once in the lower back and flown to University Hospital about 45 minutes after the shooting.
...
Deputies originally responded to the 22500 block of Crossbow about 2:55 p.m. for a call of domestic disturbance, Buchanan said. The argument apparently erupted after a night of alcohol and drugs.
The two had been “drinking beer and snorting cocaine all night long,” Buchanan said.
SAN ANTONIO -- District Judge Bert Richardson on Friday warned a murder defendant that he should reconsider his request to act as his own lawyer.
Earlier this week, Richard Jett fired his lawyers during a hearing, saying he wanted to represent himself when his trial begins Monday.
Richardson is concerned about Jett's mental health after the defendant appeared in court wearing boxers. Jett refused to get dressed and tried to flush his clothes down a toilet in his cell, court officials said.
Police originally responded to the 120 block of Lee Street last Friday for a burglary call in which neighbors said three juveniles had walked out of a house with a television. When police arrived, they found the front door to the house open and three girls — ranging in age from 11 months to 2 years — asleep on the living room floor with no adults around, the affidavit said.
The girls' father, Fred Vega Jr., told police he left the girls unattended so he could go to a neighborhood bar a few blocks from the residence, the affidavit said.
...
When police questioned Vega two days after the incident, he told authorities he thought his wife was watching the children. He later told a child welfare worker that he saw his wife at the bar that same night.
His wife also changed her story when questioned by officials. Originally, she told investigators she left the children with a babysitter while she went to visit friends. That story was concocted, she later admitted to police, “so they would not get into trouble for going to the bar,” according to the affidavit.
Asked by her husband to go to the bar that evening, the woman told police she knew leaving the children alone was wrong but Vega made her “feel guilty about not going with him,” according to the affidavit.
Mary Alice Cisneros, councilwoman for District 1, said her office has received complaints about scantily-clad waitresses and sexually suggestive behavior at a near-downtown cafe called Las Nenas within her district. The complaints have prompted Cisneros to investigate the city's ban on sexually oriented businesses and to check on the cafe's certificate of occupancy and other licensing, she said.
The cafe is located near the intersection of Fredericksburg Road and Cincinnati Avenue.
"We are looking into just exactly what sexual orientated businesses are allowed to do and not supposed to be doing," she said.
The concern, Cisneros said, goes beyond her district, citing recent complaints about the Bikini Car Wash in Councilwoman Jennifer Ramos' District 3 and the now-closed Mariposas Cafe in in Councilwoman Lourdes Galvan's District 5.
"It's sprouting all over, whether it's in other district or in mine in particular, and so we will muster the support and do the investigations and move forward," she said.
The Alamo Community College District was successful today in obtaining a temporary injunction against a former student of this college.
Franchesca O'Neal, a 26-year-old political science major, was barred from making contact with staff, faculty and students of the district and from entering district property through a temporary restraining order that was issued Sept. 3.
Today's ruling by 57th District Court Judge Joe F. Brown Jr., essentially keeps intact that order concerning faculty and staff, which was set to expire. The prohibition against talking to students was too far-reaching, Brown said.
A final hearing on a permanent injunction is set for 9 a.m. Dec. 8.
The bad news is someone got hurt this time. The good news is that some witnesses caught the driver before he could get away.SAN ANTONIO -- An elderly couple was injured early Thursday when a sport utility vehicle driven by a suspected drunken driver crashed into the bedroom of their apartment on the city's southeast side.
Maria Elena Zamora, 79, was pinned in her bed underneath the vehicle and had to be extracted, police said. She was transported to University Hospital in serious but stable condition, police said. Her husband, Reymundo Zamora, 82, was thrown from the bed. He suffered a minor injury and was hospitalized for observation.
Police said a man was speeding around 1 a.m. when he lost control of his Chevrolet Suburban and crashed into the Highland Hills Apartment Homes in the 3000 block of East Southcross Boulevard.
"I started chasing him down and tripped him," said Casey Jones, who helped stop the driver. "He tried to get up and I shoved him down again and my friends arrived and we roughed him up."
SAN ANTONIO, TX -- A 2-month-old baby was rushed to the hospital with serious injuries on Monday.
Police are trying to figure out who is responsible for abusing the baby, who has broken bones, bruises, and bleeding inside his skull.
The child's parents and his babysitter are putting the blame on each other. The boy is being cared for at Christus Santa Rosa Children's Hospital.
...
The babysitter said the child's mother dropped him off at her house and told her that the child had a fever. Doctors discovered the little boy had broken legs, head trauma, and bruises on his face and back.
"I'm not blaming her. It could have happened anyhow," said the babysitter. "I don't know. I don't know how that baby has broken legs and a fractured skull. But accidents happen."
...
"I'm afraid for my family and stuff. I don't want to be blamed for something I didn't do," explained the babysitter. "I tried to help her and that was it."
Makes me proud.SAN ANTONIO -- After spending one night at Port San Antonio, Mirasol Hernandez, her mother and young daughter decided to try and head back to Houston.
But after learning going back home wasn't a good idea, Hernandez and her family spent Friday night in their vehicle at a gasoline station off Interstate 10.
On Saturday morning, two San Antonio women saw what Hernandez was going through and decided to open up their home to a total stranger.
"We saw them and said, 'Hey, you know, you're more than welcome to come to our home if you need somewhere to stay if you don't want to be out here,'" Janie Ramos said in an interview with KSAT 12 News.
