Jealousy drove murder-for-hire plot that sealed Dallas dentist's fate, driver testifies

Crystal Cortes testified Tuesday in Brenda Delgado's capital murder trial. She echoed much of the testimony that she gave last year in the trial for the murder-for-hire plot's gunman.

The getaway driver in the slaying of a Dallas pediatric dentist repeated a confession Tuesday that helped send the gunman in the murder-for-hire plot to death row last year.

She was guilty, Crystal Cortes admitted, but so was Brenda Delgado, the woman accused of masterminding the scheme to kill Kendra Hatcher.

"She was envious of Kendra," Cortes, 27, told the jury during the second day of Delgado's capital murder trial.

Brenda Delgado
Brenda Delgado(Dallas County Jail)

Hatcher was shot to death Sept. 2, 2015, in the parking garage of her Uptown apartment building.

In exchange for a 35-year sentence, Cortes pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of murder and agreed to testify at the trials for Delgado and Kristopher Love.

Her testimony in Love's trial led to his conviction as the gunman in Hatcher's murder. Love, 36, was sentenced to death in October.

On Tuesday, Cortes echoed much of that testimony. She said that she met Delgado through a mutual friend a month before the shooting and that the two instantly became close.

Delgado, 36, had told Cortes that she wasn't happy about Hatcher's relationship with her ex-boyfriend, Ricardo "Ricky" Paniagua, and had created a fake Facebook profile to monitor Hatcher online, Cortes said.

She said Delgado confronted her early in the friendship with a plot to harm Hatcher in hopes she could be with Paniagua again.

"She wanted to get rid of Kendra Hatcher because she was envious of her," Cortes said. "She asked if I knew anybody who would take care of her."

Delgado paid Cortes $500 for her role as the getaway driver and gave Love money and drugs to shoot Hatcher, Cortes said.

For weeks before the shooting, the three followed Hatcher from her job to her apartment, Cortes testified.

Cortes and Love were supposed to ambush Hatcher in the parking garage of the apartment building and make the crime appear like a botched robbery.

Cortes never thought the slaying would become major news and didn't craft a backup plan. Delgado, on the other hand, planned to flee to Mexico.

George Milner, Delgado's attorney, has raised doubts about Cortes' credibility. On Tuesday, he questioned why she waited until a month before Love's trial to finally tell her version of the truth.

Milner said Cortes lied multiple times to investigators, including when she tried to claim an innocent man was behind the shooting. Cortes said she lied for years because of her loyalty to Delgado.

But Milner hinted that it was Cortes' and Love's idea to kill Hatcher, knowing that the crime could be easily linked to Delgado instead of them.

"She's told everyone but Santa Claus she doesn't like Dr. Hatcher and she really wants to be with Ricky," he said.

Jurors heard other testimony Tuesday from the owner of the Jeep Cherokee that was used as the getaway vehicle and a witness who called 911 after hearing gunshots and seeing the SUV.

Dallas police identified Kendra Hatcher as the woman killed Sept. 2, 2015, in a residential parking garage just north of Woodall Rodgers Freeway. She was found next to her car, dead of a single gunshot wound.

Jose Ortiz, a mechanic, said he had known Delgado from childhood and she would often refer customers to his auto repair shop.

The day of the shooting, Delgado and Cortes came to Ortiz with a run-down BMW and asked if he could repair the car. Ortiz loaned them a Jeep while he fixed the car.

The next day, Ortiz saw a Jeep with the same faded paint on the hood in the news and knew it was his.

He met up with Delgado, who he said denied it was the same Jeep then told him to paint the vehicle and hide it. On Sept. 4, two days after the shooting, he called the police.

"Brenda Delgado, in general, is a life lesson for me," said Ortiz, who hasn't loaned his car since.

Delgado won't face the death penalty if convicted because of an agreement with Mexico for her extradition to Dallas after her arrest in Coahuila state in 2016.

Her trial continues Wednesday.

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