A Texas City man has been sentenced to probation after a woman’s decomposing body was discovered in the trunk of his car.
On Tuesday afternoon, a Galveston County jury sentenced Christopher Lee Maldonado of Texas City to probation for concealing the body of Angela Mitchell in the trunk of her car.
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Mitchell’s body was discovered in her own vehicle in Texas City in 2022. Concerns arose when Mitchell failed to pick up her infant son, prompting her cousin to use the Find My Friends app to track Mitchell’s iPhone to its last known location near Maldonado’s home.
OUR FIRST REPORT: Body of missing woman found in trunk of a car in east Texas City, police say
Mitchell’s mother reported her missing to the Dickinson Police Department on May 6. On May 11, detectives with Texas City Police Department found Mitchell’s car on 4th Ave in Texas City, where flies and the odor of death emanated from the trunk.
Texas City Fire Department personnel and TCPD detectives opened the trunk, revealing Mitchell’s decomposing body.
Authorities determined that Mitchell was a sex worker whose last known job was at Maldonado’s Lago Mar home on May 5, 2022. He was indicted for tampering with a corpse, a second-degree felony.
The Medical Examiner could not determine a cause of death due to decomposition but ruled out an overdose and natural causes. Mitchell’s cause of death remains undetermined.
Maldonado’s trial began Feb. 26, 2025, almost three years after Mitchell’s body was found.
The prosecution presented evidence of Mitchell’s last known location at Maldonado’s house, cell phone evidence showing his last contact with Mitchell on May 5, and screenshots on Maldonado’s phone of missing person posters circulated by Mitchell’s family.
One of Maldonado’s associates also testified that on the night Mitchell went missing, Maldonado paid him $200 to move the car in which Mitchell was later found. The man claimed he was unaware of the corpse in the trunk at the time. He enlisted the help of two teenagers, one of whom testified that she discovered the body in the trunk while assisting with the car move.
Prosecutors argued that Maldonado’s actions deprived Mitchell’s family of the chance to learn how she died. The jury returned a guilty verdict on Monday.
During the punishment phase, Maldonado’s ex-wife testified that he was manipulative and controlling and had strangled her. Maldonado faces a pending felony charge for strangulation assault related to that incident.
The jury sentenced Maldonado to five years in prison but ordered the sentence probated, along with a $10,000 fine. A judge set Maldonado’s probation term for ten years and ordered him to serve 120 days in jail as a condition of probation.
