800-Pound Woman Faces Murder Charge

(Edinburg, Texas) In March 2008, an 800-pound La Joya woman, Mayra Lizbeth Rosales, 27, was arrested and arraigned in her bedroom on charges that she killed her two-year-old nephew, Eliseo Gonzalez Jr.

Mayra Rosales faces one count of capital murder and one count of injury to a child. Her sister, 20-year-old Jamie Rosales, faces a charge of injury to a child for allegedly leaving her son in Mayra's care even though she knew the woman's weight incapacitated her.

Both have entered not guilty pleas.

On Thursday, Mayra Rosales made a court appearance via video teleconference since she is physically incapable of leaving her home.

Court staff projected Rosales' image on a wall during Thursday's hearing, while she talked with state District Judge Ricardo Rodriguez Jr. from her bed in Sullivan City. A blue curtain obscured the woman's body up to her chin.

She spoke little during the hearing and responded to the judge's questions mostly in one-word answers

"For now, this is how we're going to conduct the hearings," Rodriguez said, referring to the video projection system. "I'm not sure yet how we're going to conduct a trial."

State law requires that all district court defendants be tried in the county seat - in this case Edinburg.

Therefore, if a trial is necessary, a forklift and a flatbed truck may have to be employed.