A 69-year-old woman in Texas who admitted to killing her 72-year-old sister in the same home where their other sister was discovered dead will avoid prison and instead spend the next decade under monitoring at an assisted living facility for the elderly.
Senior District Judge Laura Parker sentenced Dores Campos to ten years of deferred adjudication — a type of probation that allows a defendant to have their criminal case erased — for the murder of 64-year-old Patricia Sauceda, according to court records obtained by Law&Crime.
Sauceda was discovered dead inside her home by police last year, along with Campos, who they say admitted to fatally shooting her sister in the chest, and the body of their deceased older sibling, 72-year-old Linda Blann, who investigators believe died naturally.
Campos appeared in Texas’ 290th District Court on Wednesday, pleading no contest to one count of manslaughter in connection with her sister’s death. She was first detained and charged with murder before reaching an agreement with prosecutors to plead to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
According to San Antonio ABC affiliate KSAT, prosecutors with the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office said that after her release, Campos, who recently suffered a stroke, will be placed in an assisted living facility where she will be closely monitored.
According to the San Antonio Express-News, Campos came to court on Wednesday in a wheelchair, and her attorney, Monica E. Guerrero, informed Senior District Court Judge Laura Parker that Campos had just suffered “a couple of strokes.”
She’s sorry. Guerrero told the court that she and her sister were greatest friends, but she feels her sister is now in heaven and no longer suffering.
As previously reported, on Saturday, June 10, 2023, deputies from the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call reporting two bodies discovered inside a home in the 2100 block of East Chaveneaux Road.
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Blann’s daughter called the emergency operator and said she had been attempting to reach her mother on the phone. As the daughter became more concerned, she decided to visit Blann’s home.
When Blann’s daughter arrived at the residence and asked for her mother, she reportedly heard her aunt, Campos, exclaim, “She’s on the floor.” Blann’s daughter then burst through the front door’s glass panel and entered, discovering “Campos sitting on the floor” and her mother and another aunt dead.
Blann’s daughter informed the emergency operator that she went over and felt her mother and aunt, believing they had died for several days.
Campos allegedly acknowledged to the sororicide, claiming she shot Sauceda, whose body was discovered on a bed with a single gunshot wound in the chest. According to police, she even informed them where they could find it. The 22-caliber revolver used in the incident was stowed in a plastic bag under the bed. Investigators reportedly discovered the bag, which contained the handgun and a single expended round casing.
According to Lawandcrime, Blann’s body showed no traces of trauma or other indications that her death was the product of foul play. Campos faced no charges in Blann’s killing.