El Paso prosecutors dropped a murder charge this month. A grandson stood accused of killing his own grandfather with a fork. But he is not walking free.
District Attorney James Montoya's office dropped the murder charge against Kevin Robles, now 28. Court records show this happened on Sept. 8.
Robles was accused of stabbing his grandfather to death. The victim was Juan Julian Macias Salas, 81. Court records say the weapon was a fork. It happened in December 2022.
A judge threw out an alleged confession from Robles. Court records say the judge found Robles has a mental disability that affects how he thinks and processes information. During police questioning, Robles seemed very upset. He asked more than once for the questioning to stop. The judge ruled police kept pushing anyway. That broke the rules on how police must handle a suspect's rights. Without the confession, prosecutors said they could not go forward with the murder charge.
Here is the part that changes the story. On that same day, Sept. 8, a judge also handed Robles a 10 year prison sentence. That case was separate. It went back to 2018. Robles had stabbed a different man that year. He got 10 years of probation for it in 2019. A judge revoked that probation this month. Now Robles is heading to prison for 10 years either way.
The District Attorney's office said the evidence against Robles in his grandfather's death had grown weak over time. A key witness became unavailable, prosecutors said. That, combined with the lost confession, is why the murder charge could not move forward.
Almost four years passed between the stabbing and the dropped charge. Macias Salas died in December 2022. The charge was not dropped until September 2026.
El Tejano will follow this case. We will report any news as it comes.
Everyone is presumed innocent until proved otherwise.
