ROBSTOWN, Tx — With the help of the U.S. Marshals and Nueces County Sheriff's office, the Robstown Police Department arrested two men on murder warrants on Monday for separate cases.
One man, 40-year-old Jeffrey Rivera, was arrested and charged in the 2020 murder of 65-year-old Paul Edward Hernandez. Rivera is being held in the Nueces County Jail on a $1M bond.
On April 7, 2020, the body of Paul Edward Hernandez, a 1974 graduate of Moody High School, was found by joggers at Nueces County Park with several stab wounds to his chest. His car had been abandoned at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Robstown, several miles away.
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In a separate case, the Robstown Police Department, with the assistance of the U.S. Marshals, arrested and charged 40-year-old Cruz Favela III for the murder of 42-year-old Benjamin Gonzalez and a burglary of a habitation.
Nueces County District Attorney Jimmy Granberry told KRIS 6 News Favela had previously been charged with murder, but that case had been dismissed because it was not indicted within 180 days of his arrest.
A motion to dismiss the case with prejudice was filed in August, and a judge signed that motion.
However, Granberry said there is no statute of limitations on murder cases, and the law does not allow a case such as this to be dismissed with prejudice.
He says that case was part of the backlog in the DA’s office but has since been indicted.
On November 18, 2023, Favela was accused of breaking into his ex-girlfriend's home in Robstown and stabbing 41-year-old Benjamin Gonzalez several times.
Favela is said to have fled the scene, and Gonzalez was driven to the hospital, where he later died.
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