Overview
- Pasadena police accuse Alina Gonzalez-Morelos, 37, of first-degree murder in the death of her husband, 42-year-old Leonardo Mendoza.
- Investigators say she voluntarily came to police and admitted she intended to hit him with her Chevrolet Tahoe but claimed she did not intend to kill him.
- Officers report the victim was struck on a sidewalk near Red Bluff Road and Deepwater Avenue after a black Tahoe jumped the curb and left the scene.
- Gonzalez-Morelos told detectives she had returned from a party and was drunk, and law enforcement says she admitted accelerating onto the sidewalk and hitting two posts before striking Mendoza.
- The Harris County District Attorney’s Office has accepted the case, Mendoza died at HCA Houston Healthcare Southeast, and the suspect remains in custody awaiting transfer to the county’s Joint Processing Center; court documents reported by other outlets suggest a dispute over a text message preceded the incident.