Charges upgraded to murder for man who beat his mother's landlord

WESLACO, Texas (ValleyCentral) — A man previously charged with injury to an elderly person was indicted on a murder charge Tuesday afternoon.

Cristian Puentes, 29, was booked into Hidalgo County Jail in March on accusations of beating his mother's landlord, 78-year-old Vidal Cruz.

Puentes is accused of kicking Cruz in the head during a landlord-tenant dispute.

According to Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra, Cruz was at the scene to pick up rent money from Puentes' mother when the dispute happened.

"Our suspect had just been released from prison. He had only been living with his mother for six days," Guerra said.

Cruz was left hospitalized following the assault, where he died 10 days later.

An autopsy indicated that Cruz’s cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head, ruling the manner of death as a homicide.

Puentes faced a Justice of the Peace on Tuesday, where he was given a $1 million cash surety bond.