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Sanchez Is Free Man After Weekend of Hesitance'With a murder indictment still hanging over ,him but with little likelihood of prosecution, Guadalupe Ortiz Sanchez is a free man today.Sanchez signed a personal recognizance bond Monday and walked out from behind bars for the first time since he was arrested in 1966 for the murder of83-year-old Mrs. Ethel Ernestine Lynch.His court-appointed attorney, Gary Norton, said this morning that Sanchez is presently staying with his mother in Fort Worth, Norton said it is doubtful that Sanchez will return to live in Corpus Christi, His attorney indicated that Sanchez will now seek a job and set upresidence in Fort Worth.Norton did have one note of criticism for remarks made by Dist. Atty. William B. Mobley Jr. earlier this month. Norton said Mobley's remarks about the federal courts being “a stumbling block in front of state prosecution was not jusiihed.It was the federal courts that reversed Sanchez’ conviction and ordered a newtrial.Norton said that in his mind the case is over unless any action is taken by thedistrict attorney.Sanchez had chosen to remain in jail Friday to fight a legal point. A state judge had ordered his release as ordered by a federal j udge, but had placed the condition of a bond on him. Sanchez, through hiscourt-appointed attorney, had chosen to refuse to sign the bond but rather seek outright release through appeal to a federal circuit court., But Sanchez apparently changed his mind Monday. He signed the bond and walked out of the San Antonio jail, the site of thelast of his four trials.Sanchez left jail at 31:30 a,m. Monday,Tests at Three Rivers Dump Site Not CompletedNo actual tests have been completed on the effects of various chemicals on the soils of the Three Rivers dump site, an official of South Texas Industrial Waste Disposal, told the council today.;Paul Harris,, under questioning by City Councilman Harold Branch, said testing is now being done by Dr. Edward C, Jonas, professor of geology at the University of Texas at Austin. Harris told the council that, the feasibility of the Three.Rivers dump site was based on “historical operations.”r 1 *“Historical operation say that it will work Harris said. He gave numerous examples of similar operations in California that had been approved by thatstate’s water quality officials,Harris told the council that “if your stair studies find that we need to make somemodification of our plans, then we will gladly incorporate them.”Earlier in his address to the council, Harris said that the delays are putting an undue financial burden on his company.A. E. Baldwin and Wayne Baldwin, who operate a toxic waste hauling service, today spoke at the workshop session to support the position of South Texas Industrial Services of Three Rivers.The Baldwins who operate Alice Specialty Co. appeared first at the presentation — although only Jerry Butler, principal owner of South Texas Industrial, had requested the opportunity to speak.The City of Corpus Christi is at present opposing the permit for the toxic waste dump and has until April 23 to complete its findings before a hearing in Austin of the Texas Water Quality Board.TheTWQB has granted the city two time extensions to collect engineering data being analyzed now by a private consultant whom the city hired.The city contends that the seepage from the dump located in the Nueces River watershed areas is a threat to Corpus Christi's water supply.During the meeting the operators of the Three Rivers industrial waste disposal operation announced they have hired Dr. Hans Suter of Corpus Christi as a consultant. Suter is known locally as an environmentalist.. Both Baldwins today spoke during their slide presentation of alleged illegal dumping of hydrocarbons, acids, sulfates and other chemicals on roads and in borrow ditches from Tilden all the way to Corpus Christi Beach.City Manager Marvin Townsendinterrupted the Baldwins' comments at one point when he said, “you are doing the same thing that you did at the (earlier) Texas Water Quality Board hearing in Austin.”Townsend particularly objected to a color picture of what he said was a legal transfer of sewage from ARADMAC’s military ship, the Corpus Christi Bay, into a manhole at a sewer lift station on Corpus Christi Beach,He asked if they were prepared to state for the record of the council workshop meeting that “if we (the city) are in cahoots with the military to violate the law?”Mayor Jason Luby gaveled the session at that point and questioned if the presentation was proper before the council today since it was not a public hearing.James Riggs, city attorney, said the council could hear anything it chose.Several council members—including J. Howard Stark — asked the Baldwins how their accusations of illegal dumping of toxic materials on roads and fn ditches pertained to the “permeability of the soil at thedumpsiteatThree Rivers,”A. E. Baldwin said that such a dump would provide a dumping site and prevent these happenings, but Stark questioned again how they could be required to use a legal dump.Baldwin said that dumps like the proposed Three Rivers site would encourage use by those now violating the law.“Everytime you see these trucks dumping, you know they are (on the average) avoiding about an $800 dumping fee,” Baldwin said,just 39 days less than eight years after he was arrested.Mrs. Lynch was found murdered and raped in her La Armada apartment on June 8, 1965. Nearly a year later, 18-year-o!d Sanchez was arrested for the burglary of another apartment in the housing project where Sanchez himself lived. The next day he confessed to a polygraph operator.The confession stood up through the original trial in 196? and a jury found him guilty and sentenced him to death.The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the verdict, but Norton, contending that proper warning had not been given, appealed to the federal courts.In 1972 the circuit court of appeals agreed with Norton and reversed the conviction and ordered a new trial. In the meantime, Sanchez1 .death sentence had been commuted to life imprisonment.There followed a series of trials, all of them held in San Antonio on a change of venue. All four trials ended in mistrials.Federal Judge Owen Cox set March 11 as the date to either set Sanchez free or try him for the fifth time.Two state judges decided it would be futile to hold a fifth trial and the conditional release was ordered.Sanchez, after a weekend of hesitancy, took the opportunity and walked out of ' jail.
Newspaper Details
Corpus Christi Times
Corpus Christi, Texas, US
Wed, Mar 27, 1974
Page 49
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
WA, USA 10 Mar 2020
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