75-year-old ‘pleaded for her life’ as intruder killed her, cops say. He’s prison-bound
A man who pleaded guilty to the brutal 2019 killing of a 75-year-old woman could now spend the rest of his life in prison, Texas officials say.
Marco Cobos, now 24, was accused of fatally stabbing Etta Nugent at her Houston home May 19, 2019. He pleaded guilty to murder and aggravated robbery on Friday, Dec. 1, and received two life sentences, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced Tuesday.
Ogg said Cobos stole a truck in Arizona and drove to Texas to meet someone he had met online. He began sleeping out of the truck when that meeting did not happen.
He knocked on the door of Nugent, a grandmother who was living on her own while her husband was in a medical facility, the district attorney’s office said. Cobos asked if he could have water and charge his phone, officials said, but the homeowner refused.
The grandmother closed the door on Cobos, but he returned minutes later and began a vicious attack, officials said.
“(He) began stabbing the elderly woman with a knife he brought and then continued the assault with one of her kitchen knives, stabbing her at least 13 times over several hours until she finally died of her wounds,” Ogg said.
As Nugent’s body was in the living room, Cobos did his laundry at the home, the district attorney said. He is then accused of leaving to buy a hamburger before returning to steal some of her possessions, including the woman’s vehicle.
Nugent’s son later found her body in the home, officials said. Cobos was detained when officers reported seeing him driving the woman’s car.
“He admitted that Nugent pleaded for her life and even told him she was a mother and grandmother with an ailing husband,” according to the district attorney.
Shortly before Cobos’ trial was set to begin, he pleaded guilty to the charges. As part of his plea, he will be eligible for parole in 60 years, Ogg said.
Ogg praised the sentencing as the correct decision in light of the “senseless and premeditated” killing.
“This case is truly horrendous and is the worst possible nightmare for anyone who has an elderly parent living on their own,” said Assistant District Attorney Lynn Nguyen. “You don’t want to believe that something like this could happen in our community, but when it does, we do everything possible to seek justice for the victim and their family.”
Nugent was a “beloved wife, mother grandmother, sister and friend” who lived in Texas her entire life, according to an obituary. She had been married since 1966 and had three children with her husband.
Before her retirement, she worked more than 20 years as the secretary of Holy Ghost Catholic Church.
“Why her?” neighbor and friend Sharon Shanahan asked in 2019, KHOU reported. “Because she was such a gentle soul. I don’t understand.”
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