{"id":343302,"date":"2026-06-19T20:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T20:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/343302\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T20:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T20:14:10","slug":"murder-charge-filed-against-woman-accused-of-fatally-running-over-dragging-man-while-her-kids-were-in-vehicle-records-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/343302\/","title":{"rendered":"Murder charge filed against woman accused of fatally running over, dragging man while her kids were in vehicle, records show"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Charges have been filed against a woman accused of fatally running over and dragging a man while her kids were inside the car, according to records.<\/p>\n

On Thursday morning, the Houston Police Department said a man was working underneath a vehicle near Antoine Drive and Sheraton Oaks when a woman in the driver’s seat hit the gas and took off in the car with him under it.<\/p>\n

ORIGINAL REPORT: Woman accused of fatally running over man who was working under vehicle, dragging him, HPD says<\/a><\/p>\n

The woman allegedly dragged the victim approximately two blocks before he finally became dislodged. Police said they found the man dead at the scene.<\/p>\n

HPD said the vehicle involved was found ditched at a nearby apartment complex. Investigators said they also worked with the complex and business owners to see the suspect exit that vehicle and be picked up by another car, which was later tracked about five miles from the area.<\/p>\n

Now, court documents show Martha Padilla faces murder and failure to stop and render aid charges in connection with the death of Luis Adrian Zepeda Lopez, identified as the victim.<\/p>\n

Records also state Padilla’s two minor children were in the car “witnessing the commission of the murder,” describing the victim as Padilla’s boyfriend or husband.<\/p>\n

Padilla, who was set to appear in court on Friday, has a prior federal immigration removal case, according to documents. Officials said she is a flight risk due to her removal history and because she allegedly fled the murder scene.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 KTRK-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — Charges have been filed against a woman accused of fatally running over and dragging…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[122441,56,58,57],"class_list":["post-343302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-122441","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}