Suspect indicted in fatal shovel beating
A San Antonio man accused of beating another man to death with a shovel after an argument has been indicted on a murder charge.
Bexar County sheriff’s deputies arrested Miguel Garcia Gonzalez, 32, and charged him in the killing of Frank Hammonds, 67, in June.
Gonzalez was among about 400 felony indictments handed down in the past two weeks by two Bexar County grand juries, the District Attorney’s Office said Friday in a statement.
Officers called to the 1700 block of South Loop 1604 West on June 13 found Hammonds dead, with injuries to his head and upper torso. A bloody shovel was found nearby, officials said.
Shortly afterward, deputies received a report of a suspicious man in the 2300 block of Pleasanton Road, about 4 miles from the crime scene. The man, later identified as Gonzalez, resisted arrest but was captured after deputies shocked him with a Taser.
During questioning, Gonzalez allegedly confessed that he killed Hammonds, according to reports. If convicted, Gonzalez faces up to life in prison.
Also indicted this week was Archer Stanley Hankins, 17, charged with murder in the stabbing death of Chancellor “Chance” Kemper Hankins, 19, on June 23. The men’s relationship was unclear from court documents.
The recent indictments also include that of a San Antonio man accused of shooting a pregnant woman in front of her two children, and a woman accused of driving while intoxicated and killing a pedestrian at a bus stop.
Dillon Lee Meckel, 35, is charged with capital murder in the shooting deaths of Lauraalicia D. Placker, 37, and her unborn child.
The shooting occurred June 19 at a Motel 6 in the 7500 block of Louis Pasteur Drive in the Medical Center area.
Placker’s children, ages 4 and 6, were in the room but were not injured. Officers found Meckel in another room at the motel, and he admitted to shooting Placker, according to a police report. The relationship between Meckel and Placker was unclear.
If convicted, Meckel faces either the death sentence or life in prison without possibility of pa
role. District Attorney Joe D. Gonzales has not indicated whether he will pursue the death penalty in the case.
In the intoxication manslaughter case, police said Melanie Mariah Gaiton, 18, of San Antonio, fled with a male passenger after her vehicle struck and killed Monique Rodriguez, 29, who was sitting on a bench at a VIA Metropolitan Transit bus stop on Culebra Road.
Police said Gaiton was speeding and she tried to overtake another vehicle shortly before 7 a.m. June 10. Traveling east, Gaiton drove into the westbound lanes on Culebra and hit a raised concrete curb at the Navidad Street intersection, then drove onto the sidewalk.
Gaiton and the male passenger were captured a few blocks away. According to the indictment, Gaiton was driving under the influence of marijuana and alprazolam, the generic name for Xanax. She faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of the seconddegree felony.