HOUSTON, Texas – A Houston man was sentenced Thursday to life in prison after being convicted of murder for fatally stabbing a mother of five in 2009, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg announced.
“This was a horrific crime when it happened, and no one in law enforcement ever stopped looking for the killer,” Ogg said. “Even after the case went cold, investigators kept working on it and when charges were filed, prosecutors were able to get justice for the victim and her family.”
Recommended Videos
Jorge Trevino Cardenas, 52, was already in prison after being convicted of sexual assault of a child. He was arrested in 2014, and a sample of his DNA was collected and put on file.
On April 24, 2009, Domitila Alvarez, a 38-year-old mother of five, went to her family’s auto shop in the Alief area to take care of some business. Hours later, family members found her body in the office of the shop. She had been stabbed several times during an altercation with someone with a long knife. Investigators also found bloodstains on the door leading out of the office, on security bars outside the door, and a parked truck outside.
There was no apparent motive for the murder, and the trail ran cold after police chased down every lead they had.
In 2021, HPD’s Homicide Division Cold Case Squad re-examined the evidence and identified Cardenas through his DNA. Tests showed Cardenas’s DNA was a match for DNA on Alvarez’s clothes, on the door, on the security bars and the truck.
Investigators believe Cardenas cut himself with the knife during the fight and his blood and DNA were mixed with Alvarez’s blood.
Cardenas was charged with murder in January 2023. He was convicted Thursday by a jury after a four-day trial and sentenced by a judge to life in prison.
Assistant District Attorney Christopher Condon, who is a chief in the Homicide Division of the DA’s Office, prosecuted the case with ADA Michael Simons, who is a chief in the Trial Bureau.
“DNA does not lie, it does not forget — it waits,” Condon said. “It waits for the technology and the right circumstance to be revealed. There was a literal blood trail from the victim’s body to Jorge Cardenas.”
Condon noted that a witness who knew Cardenas in 2009 testified that he lived near the shop, worked as a security guard near the shop and carried a long, fixed-blade knife with a serrated edge. Medical experts testified that the knife that killed Alvarez was a long blade with a serrated edge.
Cardenas must serve at least 30 years in prison before being eligible for parole.