Arizona man who stabbed 75-year-old woman to death in Sharpstown home to serve 2 life sentences
Marco Cobos drove from Arizona to Houston in a stolen truck to meet someone before he parked in the victim's neighborhood.
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- An Arizona man who pleaded guilty to the deadly stabbing of a 75-year-old woman in her Sharpstown home will spend the rest of his life in jail.
In May 2019, Marco Cobos, 24, stole a truck in Arizona and drove to Houston to meet someone he had met online.
When that meeting didn't happen, Cobos began sleeping in his truck, parked in a Sharpstown neighborhood.
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According to the Harris County District Attorney's Office, residents called authorities several times to report him there, but Cobos continued sleeping in the parked truck for several days until May 19, the same day he knocked on Etta Nugent's door.
Cobos asked Nugent for water and to charge his phone, but she didn't feel comfortable letting him in, so she pointed him in the direction of another neighbor who helped him.
Then Nugent closed her door.
Cobos returned minutes later and pushed her door in this time.
He pulled out a knife and stabbed her before assaulting her with one of her kitchen knives. Nugent was stabbed at least 13 times over several hours until she died of her wounds.
After the fatal stabbing, Cobos did laundry at her house and took a shower.
During this time, he also left to buy a burger and returned to Nugent's home, where her body was still inside.
After Cobos ransacked her home, he stole her car and drove it to a local motel, where he went to sleep.
Nugent's adult son called police after he went to her home and discovered her body.
The next day, while police were still at Nugent's house, Cobos returned in her car, so he could move the stolen truck away from the murder scene.
He was detained for driving Nugent's car and confessed to the murder. Cobos also admitted that the victim pleaded for her life and told him she was a mother and grandmother and had an ailing husband.
Nugent was a secretary at a Houston-area Catholic church for 25 years. Her husband had been moved to a medical facility due to his poor health.
Before his trial was set to begin last Friday, Cobos pleaded guilty to both murder and aggravated robbery in exchange for two life sentences, which were stacked.
If convicted of capital murder, Cobos faced life without parole.
Under the plea deal, he will spend at least 60 years in prison before he is eligible for parole. He can't appeal the conviction or the two prison sentences.
