May 28
TEXAS:
Hardin County DA drops charges in first female death penalty case
The Hardin County District Attorney's office has dropped all charges
against a woman suspected in the 2000 stabbing death a trailer park owner.
Patricia Mae Podhorsky was indicted in 2003 on charges of murder and
capital murder in the death of 72-year-old Bennett Jones.
She was also indicted on 4 counts of solicitation of aggravated robbery
and 1 count of solicitation of burglary of a habitation with intent to
commit robbery, according to previous Enterprise coverage.
Hardin County District Attorney David Sheffield said that after reviewing
the case there was insufficient evidence to move forward with the charges.
"There's been some new evidence come to light and there's a new direction
that this case will be taking very shortly," he said by phone.
He declined to give more details.
Police believed that Podhorsky, a former live-in girlfriend of Jones',
killed him while robbing him at the Jones Trailer Park he owned, according
to previous Enterprise reports.
A maintenance worker found Jones dead in his trailer with a slit in his
throat and several stab wounds, according to the previous coverage.
(source: Beaumont Enterprise)