By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
A state district judge has increased the bonds for one of three Del Rio women charged with murder and evidence tampering to a total of $5.2 million.
Kyandra Renee Faz, 22, was brought to the Val Verde County Judicial Center on Monday for a 9 a.m. bond reduction hearing before 83rd Judicial District Judge Robert E. Cadena. Faz was seeking a reduction of the $5 million bond set after she was charged with murder.
Cadena declined to reduce that bond and set a $200,000 bond on a charge of tampering with evidence. Faz was recently indicted on both charges.
Faz is one of three women charged with murder in the June 25 stabbing death of Caroline Peña, 32, also of Del Rio. Peña was attacked after she allegedly confronted Faz outside Faz’s home on East 10th Street that afternoon. Peña was taken to the emergency room at Val Verde Regional Medical Center, then transferred to a hospital in San Antonio, where she died later that day.
Faz, dressed in orange scrubs and orange Crocs, with her wrists handcuffed and her ankles shackled, was escorted into a second-floor courtroom by sheriff’s office deputies. She was seated at a table in the front of the courtroom, and a deputy remained standing beside her throughout the hearing.
Cadena entered minutes later and called Faz’s case. Seeing no one seated with her, he asked where her attorney was.
“He was advised this (hearing) was canceled on Friday,” Faz responded.
According to documents on file in her case, Faz is represented by attorney Thomas J. Lane of the San Antonio law firm Hunter, Lane & Jampala.
District Attorney Suzanne West and her assistants and investigators represented the state at the hearing.
Cadena said he would proceed with Faz’s arraignment because she had been indicted. He asked her to stand at the podium in front of the bench, swore her in and had someone hand her a copy of the indictment. After Faz confirmed her name was spelled correctly, Cadena read the indictment to her.
The indictment contains two counts: murder, a first-degree felony, and tampering with evidence, also a felony.
Cadena said he would enter pleas of not guilty on Faz’s behalf and advised her not to speak to anyone about the case without her attorney present.
Cadena also said he would submit a report prepared by the probation department under seal as confidential. He said “we would have gotten into” the report if Faz’s attorney had been present.
Cadena told Faz he would leave the $5 million murder bond in place and set a $200,000 bond on the tampering charge, bringing her total bonds to $5.2 million.
“Good luck to you,” Cadena told Faz before closing the hearing. The proceeding took less than 10 minutes.
Before the hearing, Faz occasionally glanced over her shoulder into the gallery, but no one attended on her behalf.
Several of Peña’s relatives, including her grandmother and sister, sat on one side of the gallery alongside Debbie Garcia, the victim assistance coordinator with the district attorney’s office.
Deputies escorted Faz out of the courtroom as soon as the hearing ended. Bailiffs asked those inside to remain until she had been taken from the building and loaded into a van for the drive back to the county jail.
West spoke with Peña’s family after the hearing about how the cases against Faz and her co-defendants would move forward. She emphasized that major criminal cases take time to move through the system and answered several of their questions.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com.
