Nine months after an incompetence finding for a man who Tarrant County prosecutors allege beat his mother to death, his ability to reasonably consult with his attorney has been restored, a psychologist concluded.
After treatment and education at a state hospital and a competence finding in a new assessment, Alexander Valdez was returned late last month to a jail in Tarrant County. He is under indictment on murder in the April 2025 death of Teresita Sayson, 58, whom Valdez beat, likely with a wooden jewelry box, authorities allege.
“It was an exorcism,” Valdez told police officers as he walked out of the killing scene, a far west Fort Worth house, and sat on a chair on the front porch, according to a detective’s account in an affidavit supporting Valdez’s arrest warrant.
A psychologist in October 2025 determined that Valdez was incompetent then. Competency restoration attempts usually involve medication and counseling.
Valdez had a Bible in his hand when officers arrived at the house. Blood appeared to be on his face, neck, chest, torso, hands and feet.
“I was doing witchcraft to kill my mom,” Valdez explained to the officers, according to the affidavit.
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An officer asked if anyone else was at the house in the 9900 block of Farmers Branch Street, west of Loop 820.
“There is a dead body in there. It’s my mom,” Valdez said.
Police allege that Valdez, who is 24, killed Sayson by hitting her multiple times in the face and upper body with an object that they suggest in the affidavit is a wooden jewelry box. Inside the master bedroom where Sayson’s body was found, police said they also located a broken jewelry box in which hair was wedged.
Blunt force head injuries caused Sayson’s death, a pathologist who works at the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office concluded.