Crime Blog

Exclusive: Mexicans nabbed fugitive in Dallas dentist’s slaying hours before planned surrender


Sarah Mervosh Follow @smervosh Email smervosh@dallasnews.com

Published: April 9, 2016 1:13 pm


Brenda Delgado (right) is accused of masterminding the murder of dentist
Kendra Hatcher in September. Authorities say Delgado was jealous of her
ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend.

Updated at 9:15 p.m.

By SARAH MERVOSH and ALFREDO CORCHADO

As Mexican authorities prepared to arrest Brenda Delgado on Friday, U.S. officials were secretly working on a plan for the FBI Ten Most Wanted fugitive to walk across a bridge near Laredo, return to the United States and turn herself in.

Delgado’s Dallas attorney told The Dallas Morning News Saturday night that the FBI and the Dallas County district attorney’s office had arranged to meet his client at the border and have her in Dallas police custody by now.

But that plan apparently imploded at the eleventh-hour when Mexican authorities nabbed Delgado at a house in Torreón, about 350 miles southwest of Laredo, where she had been staying with a friend.
“It was the perfect plan that almost was,” said George Milner, the prominent Dallas defense lawyer retained by Delgado’s family.

Now, Delgado — who authorities say masterminded the slaying of a Dallas dentist in a fit of romantic jealousy — could remain in a Mexican prison cell for months as she awaits extradition. But a Mexican legal expert said Delgado could speed up her return by cooperating.

The 33-year-old Mexican national, who lived in Pleasant Grove before fleeing, is expected to appear in a federal court in Mexico City on Monday.

On the run

Delgado had been on the run since at least early October, when she became wanted in the slaying of Kendra Hatcher, a 35-year-old pediatric dentist who had begun dating Delgado’s ex-boyfriend.
Authorities say Delgado hired a gunman and a getaway driver to execute a revenge attack on Hatcher, who was shot in her Uptown parking garage Sept. 2.

Milner on Saturday defended his client, calling the police version of events so “bizarre and illogical that it cannot possibly be true.” He said the fear of false conviction in a case that had drawn national attention might have driven anyone to return to her home country.

“Who wouldn’t run?”

The FBI added Delgado to its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list earlier this week. Around the same time, Milner said, Delgado’s family approached him about Delgado turning herself in.



Milner, a former prosecutor, said he worked with the FBI and the Dallas County DA’s office to put together a plan so covert that even his secretary didn’t know who their client was when she put together key documents.

He said the proposed surrender would have gone like this:

A family member intended to escort Delgado to the border, where U.S. officials would take her into custody. The FBI would then fly her to Dallas, where she would be handed over to Dallas police and booked into Dallas County jail Saturday night.

It’s unclear whether Mexican authorities knew of the Americans’ plan when they arrested her Friday.

The attorney general’s office in Mexico said its investigators worked closely with U.S. officials in Torreón to capture Delgado. The FBI released a statement commending Mexican law enforcement partners for their “tremendous cooperation and collaboration.”

Milner said he doesn’t believe Mexican authorities intentionally compromised Delgado’s surrender, though he said he was “livid” when he found out what had happened.
“An extreme amount of work with great cooperation from everyone involved went to waste,” he said.

The FBI had offered a $100,000 for information leading to Delgado’s capture, which was publicized when Delgado was added to the most wanted list.

Gil Torrez, a retired FBI agent who is now a private investigator, said money likely served as a “motivator” in leading to her swift arrest.

He said he has worked cases in which Mexican officials have “gotten in line” to receive such a reward, though it’s unclear if that’s what happened in this case.

Extradition

Delgado was detained in the working class neighborhood of Las Torres in the northern city of Torreón, Coahuila, a region commonly known as Comarca Lagunera, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office said.
She was staying with a friend in a house on Calle Torres de Londres. Mexican investigators, following tips, found her after searching in several states, according to the AG’s office.


The street where Brenda Delgado was living
when she was detained. (Special to The
Dallas Morning News)
PHOTOS: http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/file...do-capture.png

In most extradition cases, it can take more than six months for a defendant to return to the United States, said Fernando Benítez, a high-profile Mexican defense attorney who specializes in extradition law.

“Just the procedure itself should take over six months,” Benítez said Saturday. “In practice, it takes even longer.”

Benítez said the United States has 40 days to file a formal request for extradition, then a Mexican judge and the country’s foreign affairs ministry would determine whether Delgado should be extradited. If she waives her rights to extradition, he said, Delgado could be returned to the U.S. “fairly quickly.”

Delgado is wanted in a homicide, which is also punishable in Mexico, so it’s unlikely she will be able to avoid extradition, Benítez said. He added that he couldn’t remember a case in which the Mexican government refused to turn over a suspect to the United States.

U.S. and Texas officials have said Delgado will not face the death penalty because Mexico is opposed to capital punishment — a typical condition of extradition.

Meanwhile, Delgado’s alleged associates — Kristopher Ledell Love, the suspected hit man, and Crystal Cortes, the suspected getaway driver — have been charged with capital murder. By definition, that means a conviction is punishable by death, but the Dallas County district attorney’s office has not filed notice that it plans to seek the death penalty in any of the cases, said first assistant Messina Madson.

The other possible punishment for a capital murder conviction is life in prison.

Madson said the DA’s office plans to move forward in taking Delgado’s case to the grand jury.

‘Bittersweet’

Hatcher’s friends celebrated Delgado’s capture with “bittersweet” tears, saying they hope it brings long-awaited closure to Hatcher’s loved ones.

“We’re happy she was caught but it’s not going to bring Kendra back,” said Elene Velasquez, who taught Hatcher yoga.

Lauren Williams, who went to dental school with Hatcher, said there had been an “open, lingering wound” while Delgado was on the run. “Part of me thought, ‘Well, they got the shooter and they got the driver but the mastermind is just going to escape,’” she said.


Kendra Hatcher traveled to Ecuador to provide pediatric dental care.

Williams was five months pregnant when her friend died. She’s now mom to a 3-month-old girl named London.

She said she saved a voicemail Hatcher left congratulating her on her pregnancy and played it for her daughter a few days ago, “so she could hear her voice.”

Williams, who went to the University of Kentucky dental school with Hatcher, said she received a package from Hatcher around the time of her death. It included a UK hair bow, headband and bib for her baby girl.

She has plans to display the gifts in a shadowbox for her daughter. She said she has also considered creating an outreach dentistry program in honor of Hatcher, who once traveled to Ecuador to provide dental care for children.

“She deserves to be remembered not as a girl who died at the hand of some weird love triangle, but as a really good, honest human being who was at the wrong place at the wrong time,” she said.

Staff Writer Sarah Mervosh reported from Dallas. Special Contributor Alfredo Corchado reported from El Paso.

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