Police: Man living in stolen truck robbed, killed elderly woman inside her southwest Houston home

Marco Cobos, 19, was charged with capital murder for allegedly killing an elderly woman inside her home on Neff Street on Monday, May 20, 2019. Marco Cobos, 19, was charged with capital murder for allegedly killing an elderly woman inside her home on Neff Street on Monday, May 20, 2019. Photo: Nicole Hensley Photo: Nicole Hensley Image 1 of / 81 Caption Close Police: Man living in stolen truck robbed, killed elderly woman inside her southwest Houston home 1 / 81 Back to Gallery

A teenager has been charged with capital murder in the death of a beloved southwest Houston grandmother who he is accused of stabbing after she was unable to help him fix his truck, according to police.

The broken-down vehicle across from Etta Nugent’s home and the 19-year-old living in it over the weekend had caught the attention of the tight-knit neighbors on tree-lined Neff Street next to the St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church soccer field.

Sunday was when Ninfa Palazzolo’s husband first saw him, she said. The suspect, identified by police as Marco Cobos, stood out among the mass of cars parked along the church property for a baptism ceremony.

“My husband saw him sitting in a truck with the car door open, and he saw him again yesterday,” said Palazzolo, who had lived near the Nugents for three decades.

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Court records show Cobos was born in Mexico and homeless. The truck he had been sleeping in had been reported stolen, police said.

Cobos sought help from 75-year-old Nugent to fix his vehicle but she was unable to "because of her age," police said. The 6-foot, 230-pound suspect then forced his way into her longtime home and stabbed her to death. Police did not say when Cobos broke into the home.

Another neighbor, Sharon Shanahan, said she last saw Nugent on Sunday.

Nugent had been home alone for most of May as her husband recovered from a medical procedure at a convalescent care facility, Shanahan said. She was supposed to visit her husband on Monday morning but never showed. Calls to her phone went unanswered.

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Her son found her around 1:30 p.m. that afternoon when he went to check on her. The back door was open and her car had been stolen, Shanahan said.

As detectives wrapped up the investigation at the Nugent residence, and while neighbors and members of the media were still gathered outside the home, Cobos tried returning to the scene of the crime in the woman's stolen car, police said.

He was apprehended around 8:30 p.m. at Mary Bates Boulevard and Neff Street, a few doors down from Nugent's home. The suspect stared blankly at police officers from the back window of a police vehicle soon after his arrest.

The teen later confessed to killing Nugent, police said. He was scheduled to appear in court early Wednesday morning.

Nugent was a retired parish secretary at Holy Ghost Catholic Church and attended St. Francis across the street from her home. She is survived by three children and six grandchildren, according to neighbors.