Abigail Marie Molina, 32, of San Antonio, has been charged with first-degree murder, theft and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence in the death of her boyfriend, 64-year-old Gilbert Parker, a maintenance worker who lived in a tool shed on the grounds of Old Path Baptist Church in China Grove, Texas.
According to the arrest affidavit, church members discovered Parker on Jan. 18 lying unconscious, partially naked and covered in dried blood inside the shed, and he later died in hospital on Jan. 20 from severe head injuries, including a skull fracture and bleeding in the brain consistent with blows from a blunt tool such as the claw end of a hammer.
Investigators say Molina later contacted police and claimed she acted in self-defense during an altercation, but an ex-boyfriend told authorities she had called him around Jan. 15 saying she had “messed up,” describing being hit by Parker, blacking out, and then striking him repeatedly with a hammer while he cried and asked for help.
The affidavit further alleges that after the assault, Molina took Parker’s wallet and his 2002 Dodge Dakota truck, attempted to clean and disguise the vehicle by sanding and spray-painting it and washing off blood, then sold it in Houston for about 300 dollars.
Police later recovered a construction hammer with one claw missing from a drainage culvert near Molina’s residence after a tip; investigators say the hammer is consistent with Parker’s injuries and, along with the lack of defensive wounds and missing property, led them to treat Molina’s self-defense claim skeptically.
Parker, remembered in his obituary as a “man full of life and music,” had reportedly been in a relationship with Molina that friends described as uneven, with him portrayed as more involved and possessive, while Molina remains jailed in Bexar County as the case proceeds and it is not yet clear whether she has legal representation speaking on her behalf.
