Last suspect in refrigerator death to plead guilty

One of the four people accused of killing a Harlingen woman and stuffing her body in a refrigerator in 2009 is expected to plead guilty next week, state prosecutor Luis Saenz said.

Marco Antonio Barrientes, 21, is due in court Tuesday morning, likely to enter a guilty plea to capital murder in the death of Rose Marie Gonzalez, 35, Feb. 7, 2009, at her apartment in the Bonita Park Housing Project in Harlingen, Saenz said.

The plea would get him life without parole, Saenz said.

Of the three other suspects one was found guilty of capital murder, another was found incompetent to stand trial and a juveline pleaded guilty.

Gonzalez's mother found her daughter in her refrigerator, badly beaten with a bag on her head. An autopsy report stated she was sexually assaulted.