Fort Bend defendant said spouse shot herself
By PEGGY O'HARE
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Sept. 21, 2010, 11:40PM
A Katy man who reported his wife's death as a suicide in 2008 has been sentenced to 48 years in prison after prosecutors convinced a jury he left a bruise on the dead woman's forehead by pressing a gun barrel against it and then firing the fatal shot inside their Cinco Ranch home.
Michael Wayne Cantu, 45, will have to serve at least half of that sentence handed down Monday night and will be 69 before he becomes eligible for parole, said his defense attorney, Wendell Odom.
Cantu reported his wife of 15 years, Jackie Ramirez Cantu, shot herself at their home in the 26300 block of Eden Point on April 24, 2008.
He said during the initial police investigation that he and his 37-year-old wife got into an argument while looking at family photos and reported that his wife then went into the master bathroom and shot herself in the forehead with a .38-caliber revolver.
The couple's two children, now 11 and 9, were in the house at the time but were asleep, Odom said.
Evidence conclusive
The Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office ruled Jackie Cantu's death a homicide. Fort Bend County prosecutor Chad Bridges said Cantu gave conflicting statements throughout the investigation and changed his story each time he explained himself. Cantu's statements were rebutted each time by expert testimony and scientific evidence, Bridges said.
The evidence indicated that Jackie Cantu tried to defend herself before she was shot, Bridges said. Experts testified the gun was pressed tightly against her skull.
Michael Cantu, a petrochemical company engineer, was "devastated" by his conviction and sentence, Odom said.
"He's always maintained that it was an accident," Odom said of the shooting, "that he was trying to take the gun away from her."
But the evidence indicated otherwise, Bridges said. "There was a tight contact wound, which is inconsistent with trying to pull the firearm away," he said Tuesday.
Odom said Cantu first told investigators he was in the kitchen and not the bathroom where the shooting occurred because he was "scared" of being charged with wrongdoing.
"That's what convicted him, was his statements that he wasn't there," Odom said.
Cantu later told detectives that he moved the gun, which was found on the bathroom floor, pointed toward his dead wife's neck, Bridges said.
No fingerprints were found on the gun, but gunshot residue was found on at least one of Michael Cantu's hands, Bridges said.
Bridges said authorities still don't know what led to the shooting.
"As for what exactly happened that night and what they were arguing about, we don't know," Bridges said. "We don't know what the exact nature of the conversation was."
Despite the sentence, Cantu insists he did not kill his wife, Odom said.
Maintains innocence
"He's realizing that his life will never be the same — that he'll probably spend the rest of his adult life in the penitentiary. He vows that someday he'll be exonerated," Odom said.
Jackie Cantu was a stay-at-home mother. The children's maternal and paternal grandparents now share joint custody of them, Odom said.
The Cantus met while both of them were attending Texas A&M University. Jackie Cantu was originally from Bryan, while Michael Cantu was from Houston. They married in 1992. Both graduated from Texas A&M with Jackie Cantu earning a degree in microbiology, said her father, Guillermo Ramirez of Bryan.
Ramirez said he does not feel any vengeance toward his daughter's husband but is sad for the couple's children.
"I wish this thing would have never happened to my daughter, to the family," Ramirez said Tuesday. "There's a lot of sadness. The only justice that would satisfy me is if my daughter came back and if I could turn back time and prevent this from happening. But I can't."
peggy.ohare@chron.com
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