Two mental health experts testified Thursday with varying information about separate interviews that were conducted with Fabian Polvon, who is accused of gunning down his wife and her friend at an Odessa car wash in 2019.
The trial will resume Friday morning at 9 a.m. in District Judge Justin Low’s 161st court. Closing arguments will start Friday’s court session as the prosecution and defense will each be given 40 minutes to speak with the prosecution given the chance for rebuttal.
Polvon is accused of shooting two people to death back in November 2019 including 36-year-old Joseph Granado and his wife Tiffany Nicole Polvon.
To start Thursday’s morning session, the defense called Dr. James Schutte, while the prosecution called Dr. Roddy Strobel later in the morning with her cross examination happening after the lunch break.
Schutte testified that he interviewed Fabian Polvon on four occasions for a total of 10 hours. The interviews happened May 22, June 19, July 3 and July 17. Strobel interviewed Polvon twice the first was on Aug. 9 and the second was about week later on Aug. 17.
During Schutte’s testimony, he concluded after the interviews with Polvon the defendant had a severe mental condition with psychotic features. Strobel testified after her second interview with Polvon that he was malingering.
Schutte explained to the jury that Polvon had a normal childhood until about the age 4 or 5 when his parents divorced. Schutte testified Polvon’s mother remarried and stated Polvon’s stepfather was verbally and physically abusive to him and his mother.
Schutte testified that Polvon continues hear the voice of his stepfather and hallucinates seeing his stepfather even though his stepfather has been incarcerated for several years for murder.
In detailing the events that happened at Apex Car Wash on Nov. 26, 2019, Schutte testified that Polvon arrived at the car wash to see his stepfather, which was a hallucination, approach him and Polvon believed that his stepfather was having an affair with his wife.
When Strobel took the stand to testify, she stated that Polvon told her Granado looks like his stepfather. Polvon stated to Strobel that he didn’t remember shooting Granado or his wife.
An earlier Odessa American article reported that a probable cause affidavit detailed that a witness saw a white Ford F-350 pickup collide with a black Cadillac Escalade on Nov. 26, 2019 that was parked on the north side of the Apex Car Wash parking lot located at 2357 E. Eighth St.
After the pickup collided with the Escalade, the witness said the suspect, who was later identified as Polvon, exited the pickup and walked to the Escalade and used a handgun to shoot Granado multiple times as he was exiting the passenger side of the Escalade.
Video surveillance showed after he shot Granado, that he walked to the driver’s side and shot his wife through the door, which struck her several times.
The affidavit stated that Polvon pulled his wife from the car and onto the ground and then left the scene.
It was reported by the Odessa American that on Nov. 27, 2019, Polvon’s father, identified as Valente Palvon Rodriguez, contacted OPD and stated that his son had contacted him and wanted to turn himself in, the affidavit stated.
Rodriguez also stated that he had confessed to him that he shot his wife and Granado.
Another difference between testimonies from Schutte and Strobel came when Polvon disposed of the firearm used in the fatal shooting. Schutte testified that Polvon got rid of the firearm because he didn’t want to harm himself, while Strobel testified that Polvon told her the gun was thrown out but no reason why.
During cross examination of Strobel, the defense questioned why she emailed the preliminary report to the prosecution asking for review and corrections. Strobel explained that she was asking about the form not the evaluation. The defense was quick to point out there were 98 corrections between Strobel’s preliminary report and final report.
Strobel testified all changes were changed by her own free will not at the request of prosecution.
After the jury was sent to the jury room, Low said if the defense is hinting at collusion than they better be able to back it up. Low said he doesn’t want to “muddy the waters.”
The defense didn’t asked her about it again as the prosecution detailed during its rebuttal that the preliminary report that Strobel emailed to the prosecution was shared by the prosecution with the defense.
The final person to take the stand on Thursday was Ector County Sheriff’s Office Lt. James McKinney. He serves as custodian of records for the Ector County Law Enforcement Center.
McKinney testified that Polvon has been a model prisoner since he has been in prison as of Nov. 29, 2019.
