Defense attorneys for Mayra Velasquez are questioning evidence used to arrest and charge her with capital murder in the 2012 stabbing death of Irasema Chavez, according to a statement from the law firm.
Velasquez was arrested July 17 after police said new DNA evidence identified her as the person who stabbed Chavez more than 100 times in her Arlington apartment kitchen 14 years ago.
The scene left police with few leads including a stolen TV, a surveillance video of someone walking to the apartment and a drop of blood on the TV stand in the living room, according to police. The blood was tested in the original investigation but investigators found no matches in national criminal databases.
All the blood could tell them was that they were looking for an Hispanic woman.
While the Arlington Police Department does not have dedicated cold case detectives, homicide investigators are tasked with following up on cold cases when not working current crimes.
In 2024, police said they went to the FBI in Dallas to request assistance with the case using the bureau’s Investigative Genetic Genealogy program.
The program tests DNA samples found at crime scenes against those submitted to public databases with which people search for relatives and seek to learn about ancestry, like FamilyTreeDNA.
Police said Wednesday that the program identified relatives of Velasquez, at which point FBI investigators began building a family tree and eliminating suspects based on a variety of factors including location, time of the crime and age of the relatives.
After identifying Velasquez as a suspect, Arlington police said they followed her to a restaurant where she had lunch with friends, according to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by WFAA.
KERA has requested a copy of the arrest warrant affidavit Wednesday through an open records request and has not heard back from Arlington police.
After that lunch, investigators collected two plastic forks and some dishes Velasquez used, WFAA reported based on the affidavit.
Disputing blood evidence
While the case is largely built around the DNA from that blood droplet, Arlington homicide Detective Tracey Dixon said it is not the only evidence prosecutors will be able to present during trial.
During a news conference Wednesday, Dixon said detectives also have evidence from a cell phone belonging to Chavez and statements she made during an interview with police. She did not share specifics.
That drop of blood, though, is one of the details attorney Dustin Hoffman said the defense disputes.
In a statement shared with KERA late Wednesday night by Hoffman, an attorney with Sellers Law Firm in Fort Worth, he said the arrest warrant affidavit creates more questions than it answers.
“For example, it states that a drop of blood found in the living room was ‘glistening,’ ‘partially wet,’ and ‘fresh’ nearly 10 hours after, according to the affidavit’s own timeline, it was allegedly left,” the statement read.
Tim Ciesco, a spokesperson for Arlington police, told KERA in a phone call Thursday morning that the department stands by that detail, which was also shared by police at the news conference Wednesday.
The statement adds that Velasquez had visited Chavez’s home in the past and “it is no surprise that her DNA was found in the living room of her friend’s apartment. DNA alone does not prove who committed a murder.”
Police said during the Wednesday news conference that Velasquez had visited the apartment before and that she was friends with Chavez.
Attorneys argue surveillance video shows a man
Attorneys also allege surveillance video shared publicly by police, which shows a suspect at the apartment property, does not depict Velasquez.
During the news conference Wednesday, Dixon said she was totally confident that the person in the video was Velasquez. Hoffman said that doesn’t align with statements they've heard from witnesses.
“The original homicide investigators publicly identified the person as a man and only interviewed male suspects,” the statement from Velasquez's attorneys read. “According to the affidavit, Mayra is 5’4” and weighs 147 lbs, she is clearly a woman.”
In another email, Hoffman clarified that the information that investigators thought the person in the video was a man did not come from prior reports or police news releases but from witnesses who spoke to Velasquez's defense team.
Ciesco disputed that statement, saying that to the best of his knowledge investigators never identified the person in the video as a man.
Ciesco shared two news releases from 2012 with KERA. In the first, distributed January 20, 2012, police shared how Chavez had been found dead in her apartment by family, that she had been stabbed and that it did not appear to be a random act. An updated news release added above the original mentions the video, saying only that it depicts "a person entering her apartment the night before her body was discovered."
Hoffman did not immediately respond to an email Thursday afternoon requesting more information on where he learned police identified the person in the video as male.
Police Chief Al Jones said at the news conference that this case is a demonstration that homicide detectives in Arlington don’t stop murder investigations, no matter how long it’s been.
“I am extremely proud of the work that our officers and our crime scene investigators did on this case,” Jones said. “They showed tenacity, dedication and they never gave up.”
Attorneys for Velasquez, though, said in the statement that she is innocent and the real killer is still unidentified.
“We are confident that when all of the evidence is heard — not just selected, sensationalized portions — the truth will prevail.”
Denied bond
Velasquez is being held without bond at the Lon Evans Correction Center, a maximum security facility and part of the Tarrant County jail system.
Her attorneys have filed a writ of habeas corpus in response to that decision — a legal document arguing a defendant’s constitutional rights have been violated.
In the writ, attorneys argue that in the order from District Judge William Knight that denies bond to Velasquez, the court did not explain “what exception to the constitutional presumption of bail the court relied upon to deny it.”
The Tarrant County District Attorney's Office said in an emailed statement Thursday afternoon that it is ready to address the writ: “The District Attorney’s Office has accepted the case and stands ready to respond to any defense motions at the appropriate court settings."
Attorneys argue that despite the fact she has enjoyed traveling in the past, Velasquez is not a flight risk.
The document also notes that Velasquez has no criminal record, either before or after Chavez was killed in 2012.
“In the 14 years since Irasema Chavez’s death, Defendant has been a benefit, not a danger, to her community,” the writ reads. “She came to this country lawfully and, in pursuit of the American Dream, became a US citizen.”
Hoffman also wrote in the document that while the Texas Constitution allows the court to deny bond to a defendant charged with a capital crime, as Velasquez has, there has to be enough evidence for the court to conclude for the purposes of bond that the defendant is guilty of a capital offense and is likely to receive capital punishment — the death sentence.
Texas law also allows a court to hold defendants without bond if based on a preponderance of the evidence the court determines the defendant cannot be trusted to appear in court when ordered or would be a threat to the community.
In the writ, Hoffman argues the prosecution has not provided that evidence and that the court has not reviewed a public safety report required before the denial of bond.
This is not the first time Arlington police have declared a cold case murder solved with the help of forensic genetic genealogy. In August 2024, police identified Bernard Sharp as the man who on Valentine’s Day 1985 killed 22-year-old UT Arlington student Terri McAdams.
Unlike in this case, police weren’t able to make an arrest. On Nov. 3, 1985, Sharp shot and killed his wife and her friend, critically wounded his wife’s cousin, then killed himself.
James Hartley is the Fort Worth breaking news reporter and producer for KERA News. Got a tip? Email James Hartley at jhartley@kera.org.
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