Houston woman charged in murder after man dragged two blocks

A northwest Houston street turned into a homicide scene when police say Martha Padilla drove away in an SUV with Luis Adrian Zepeda Lopez caught underneath, dragging him for roughly two blocks while her two minor children were inside. By the time the vehicle came loose in the 6400 block of Antoine Drive near Sheraton Oaks Drive, investigators say Lopez was dead at the scene.

Court documents identified the victim as Luis Adrian Zepeda Lopez and said Padilla now faces charges of murder and failure to stop and render aid. In some court records and local coverage, Lopez was described as Padilla’s boyfriend or common-law husband, indicating the killing may have grown out of a domestic or personal dispute rather than a random traffic encounter.

Houston police said the incident was reported Thursday morning, June 12, 2026. Officers later found the car abandoned about a block away, and investigators followed a trail of evidence to a second vehicle about five miles away, according to local reporting. Padilla is now in the Harris County Jail and is due in court Monday, June 22, 2026.

The presence of the two children inside the car adds a separate layer to the case. Their exposure to the violence could become relevant in later court proceedings, both as prosecutors build the homicide case and as child-welfare authorities assess what happened inside the vehicle and after the fatal dragging.

HPD’s Vehicular Crimes Division handles fatal crashes and crashes with a criminal nexus, including failure to stop and render aid cases, making it the unit expected to lead an investigation like this one. Prosecutors also reportedly described Padilla as a flight risk, pointing to a prior federal immigration removal case and her alleged departure from the scene.

Under Texas law, murder can be charged when a person intentionally or knowingly causes a death, or when an act clearly dangerous to human life is committed during a felony and causes a death. Texas also treats failure to stop and render aid after an injury or death crash as a serious offense. For northwest Houston, the case stands out for the speed with which an apparent vehicle dispute became a homicide investigation, with children present and a dead man left behind on a neighborhood street.