CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — A judge has ordered assets related to the estate of Johnny Canales be frozen.
As KRIS 6 News reported, Sylvia Castillo has filed paperwork claiming she is the sole surviving spouse of Juan "Jose" Canales, a Tejano TV show host who died in June.
A hearing on a motion for accounting and temporary injunction was held via zoom Wednesday.
Castillo and her attorney, Steve Lopez, attended that hearing. As did Canales' widow, Nora Canales and her attorney, Abel Cavada.
At the start of the hearing, Cavada asked for a continuance in the case and said he had only received paperwork on Tuesday.
"We're not ready for anything. We need to review the pleadings. We need to amend our pleadings if necessary. There's too much controversy in this case to decide anything today even their request for injunctive relief is premature. I just got notice yesterday," Cavada said, "In fact, many facts and issues will need to revealed in the discovery process. This will be a highly contested case."
He asked that he be given an extra two weeks.
County Court at Law #3 Judge Deanne Galvan denied that request and said she had not received that motion and that the hearing was to appoint a temporary administrator to the estate.
"She is, to the best of our understanding, using and administering that property without any kind of court oversight which is what necessitated our request for our accounting and also for the temporary injunction to keep her from spending or depleting or in any way alienating the estate's property," Lopez said.
Cavada responded, questioning Castillo's claim that she was legally married to Canales at the time of his death.
He claimed Castillo has been married and divorced three times since 1980.
After hearing from both attorneys, Galvan appointed Celeste Robertson as the estate's temporary administrator.
While assets have been frozen, the judge ordered Nora Canales will be allowed to withdraw funds to cover living expenses.
According to the copy of petition for declaratory judgment filed with the Nueces County Clerk's Office, Castillo is seeking monetary relief of $250,000 or less and nonmonetary relief.
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