Sandra Rios, 54, pleaded guilty Thursday to murder in the death of Sammy Marks. Rios had been facing a possible sentence of life in prison. Under Texas law, she will be eligible for parole after serving half of her sentence in actual calendar time.<\/p>\n
Rios stabbed Marks, 71, in the chest with a kitchen knife at his home in the 1600 block of West Alabama Street on March 8, 2025, after an early-morning argument. Investigators said the fight started when Marks complained about Rios being too loud while making food.<\/p>\n
Rios left the home after the stabbing and was arrested about a block away.<\/p>\n
Public records list Marks as the home’s owner since at least 2023. The property is recognizable for a large sign that once advertised tarot card and psychic readings. It’s unclear if Marks had a relationship with the business.<\/p>\n
The relationship between Rios and Marks had been marked by violence even before his death. In January 2025, she was charged with aggravated assault after threatening him with a pair of scissors, according to court records. One bail document showed that\u00a0Rios was required to obtain a GPS monitor within three business days, but prosecutors said she never did.<\/p>\n
In 2024, Rios was accused of striking Marks in the head with a flashlight, threatening him with a knife and damaging a window at his home, according to court records. Some of the cases against Rios were dismissed at Marks’ request, records show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sandra Rios, 54, pleaded guilty Thursday to murder in the death of Sammy Marks. Rios had been facing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-448779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448779","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=448779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}