Murder of Joey Fischer

On February 24, 2000, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (5th Circuit), acting sua sponte (on their own accord), decided to rehear Cisneros' sentence en banc (before the entire court). After reviewing the case, they reaffirmed the conviction on January 4, 2001. A petition for a rehearing was denied by the court on February 2, 2001. Her defense filed a writ of certiorari, seeking a judicial court review, on April 4, 2001. On June 19, 2001, Cisneros' defense filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court to review her conviction and have it overturned. They claimed that the U.S. federal government did not have jurisdiction over her case because there was no evidence of foreign commerce to invoke federal jurisdiction. Cisneros' attorney stated that the evidence brought forward from the prosecution showed that the murder arrangements were made in Texas, and that the murderers traveled from Dallas to Brownsville—not Mexico—before the murder. Since the U.S. Supreme Court only reviews a few hundred cases out of the thousands of requests it receives each year, this appeal was Cisneros' last attempt to have her conviction overturned. The 5th Circuit refused to consider the appeal on October 3. The U.S. Supreme Court denied her request for an appeal a second time on November 10, 2008, bringing the case to full closure.

After two years, Cisneros was re-arrested on February 25, 1998, and held without bond. According to county jail records, she was arrested for the same murder-for-hire charges as the first time. The FBI did not elaborate initially on the charges, but stated she was indicted by a federal grand jury for using interstate or foreign commerce facilities to orchestrate the murder. The indictment's hearing was held two weeks before the statute of limitations ran out. Cameron County officials said that charging Cisneros again was not double jeopardy, which protects individuals from being charged for the same crime more than once, because she was charged federally. They argued the new indictment included new charges not discussed in the previous trial, and that there are some areas that allow for concurrent jurisdiction that can lead to someone being charged for separate crimes under the same circumstances. If convicted again, Cisneros was facing another life in prison sentence and a US$250,000 fine. Her defense stated they would plead not guilty and ask for a jury trial. The prosecution said that Martínez agreed to serve as their primary witness again. The defense criticized the new indictment stating it was vague and did not include new information.

On January 25, 1996, Cisneros's conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeals for the 13th District of Texas in Edinburgh, Texas. In court, the judge instructed the jury that unless there was evidence showing that Cisneros employed the assassins, or that there was evidence that Puentes Pizaña and Olivarez killed Fischer, she could not be convicted of capital murder. The jury had no evidence that Cisneros hired the assassins since her only contact was through Martínez. The jury analyzed the circumstantial evidence that linked Puentes Pizaña or Olivarez to the murder. They knew the pair registered at the motel the night before the murder, and left the motel a few hours after Fischer was killed. They also heard they drove a car with a similar description as the one seen at the crime scene, and made several phone calls to the same Dallas number as Garza after the killing, and that Garza said he paid the assassins at a motel. This evidence cast suspicion on the two alleged hit-men, but was not enough to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Puentes Pizaña or Olivarez were behind Fischer's murder. The court also recognized that even if Puentes Pizaña or Olivarez were found guilty of the murder, there was not enough evidence to show that Cisneros employed the two or was ever in contact with them. The jury recognized there was evidence that she gave money to Martínez, who in turn gave it to Garza, but that meant there were several parties at fault. In order for the jury to find Cisneros responsible for the actions of another party, the judge needed to charge the jury on the Texas law of parties that she was "acting a party to the offense".

Prosecutors agreed that Cisneros was guilty under the law of parties — that she was guilty of the crime of murder even though she did not commit the crime directly. However, prosecutors failed to word her charge appropriately, suggesting that Cisneros "directly" hired Puentes Pizaña and Olivarez to murder Fischer instead of working through intermediaries. On February 14, a state appeals court in Corpus Christi ordered Cisneros released on a US$50,000 bond, about one-sixth of the original bond posted for her trial. The order stated that the prosecution did not agree to the bail, but the document stated they had failed to file the appropriate paperwork within the mandatory ten days. On February 22, a judge ordered her released from prison. She was unavailable for comment, and it was not known if she returned to Brownsville. Fischer's family denounced the ruling and said the appeals court "seemed to have lost sight" that their son was killed. Brownsville prosecutors said even if there was not enough evidence to convict Cisneros for capital murder, she could still be convicted of ordinary murder, since the appeal was approved because there was no direct evidence linking Cisneros with a murder-for-hire charge. The reversal was upheld by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in November 1996.

On July 13, 1995, Cameron County officials and state authorities traveled to Mexico City to ask Mexican officials to prosecute Puentes Pizaña and Olivarez for Fischer's murder. Thousands of documents were translated from English to Spanish and handed over to Mexico's attorney general for review. On July 15, Mexican officials agreed to prosecute both of them for the murder in an international prosecution court in Mexico City. Texas prosecutors asked the Mexican government to use Article 4 of the Mexican Federal Penal Code, a little-used provision that permits Mexican citizens to be prosecuted in Mexico for crimes they committed outside the country. In order for the provision to take effect, it required the accused to be in Mexican territory; not to have faced justice in the country where the crime was committed; and that the crime was not only illegal in the country where it was committed, but also in Mexico. Murder in Mexico carries a maximum sentence of 50 years in prison, though it is common for people to be released after 15 to 25 years for good behavior. The Cameron County office said they would use a federal prosecutor from Tamaulipas as the judge. The two accused would be issued an arrest warrant and asked to appear in court where a federal judge would review their case and determine the punishment in a few months. When Puentes Pizaña heard the news, he was surprised and angered by the decision. He maintained his innocence saying he was only a car thief. Olivarez was in custody in a Matamoros prison. On September 20, a Mexican federal judge agreed to prosecute Puentes Pizaña and Olivarez for the murder. Both of them were eventually found guilty and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Garza, troubled by what he had done, confessed to the police that he acted as a middleman in Fischer's murder. He cooperated with the police to incriminate Martínez, who then aided in Cisneros's arrest. Cisneros and Garza were eventually sentenced to life in prison by a state court in 1994, but Cisneros's sentence was overturned. She was convicted again in 1998 by a federal court and sentenced to life in prison. Martínez was given a 20-year sentence after pleading guilty and testifying against the two in court. Though U.S. officials tried to have the two assassins extradited, the hitmen never faced trial in Texas. They were prosecuted in Mexico and given a 15-year sentence.

On February 13, 1994, State Judicial Police arrested Puentes Pizaña in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, on a car theft charge. In an interview the following day, he said he was not guilty of Fischer's murder, and claimed he was at his mother's house in Matamoros when the murder occurred. He insisted that neither he nor Olivarez were gun owners or users. U.S. officials noted that it was unlikely for Mexico to extradite Puentes Pizaña since the extradition treaty between both countries did not cover Mexican nationals, and because Texas has the death penalty, which is outlawed in Mexico. Reynosa officials stated that Puentes Pizaña would have to face charges in Mexico before an extradition could be considered. Car theft sentences ranged from three to ten years in prison. Puentes Pizaña, on the other hand, argued that facing trial in the U.S. would not guarantee a fair trial. South Texas officials stated that there was a possibility for Puentes Pizaña to be tried in Mexico for Fischer's murder if an agreement was made between Texan and Tamaulipas state officials, though they said that trying him in the U.S. was unlikely. Among the possible guarantees discussed for a possible extradition was dropping Puentes Pizaña's capital murder charge altogether because it qualified him for the death penalty. Another alternative discussed was having U.S. authorities promise Mexican prosecutors that Puentes Pizaña would not face the death penalty. Once in the U.S., Puentes Pizaña's charges cannot be upgraded, per the 1980 extradition treaty between both countries.

On May 23, 1994, Mexican State Judicial Police arrested Olivarez again in Matamoros for possessing two stolen vehicles. He was interviewed by Mexican authorities and stated that he was not guilty of Fischer's murder. He admitted to having stolen cars since he was young, and stated that Garza was trying to put the blame on him to protect himself from prosecution. Olivarez justified himself by saying that he had never been arrested with a gun. He admitted going to Dallas in 1992, but stated that he only knew Garza by name. He said he was a self-employed auto mechanic who supported his wife, mother, and uncle. Mexican officials said that Olivarez's auto theft ring extended all the way to Monterrey, as well as in Río Bravo, Valle Hermoso, and Matamoros, Tamaulipas. There was an arrest warrant for him issued by a state judge in Reynosa for being connected to about 50 car thefts. Brownsville investigators went to Mexico to see if they could talk to Olivarez, and began extradition proceedings to bring him to a Texan court.

On November 23, Cisneros's request for a change of venue was denied by the court. The prosecution stated that the pool of possible jurors included people from other parts of Cameron County and not just from Brownsville, where most of the county's population resided, and where the murder occurred. They stated it was unlikely that these potential jurors had read the articles from the Houston Chronicle, The Dallas Morning News, or The New Yorker magazine, which the defense provided earlier as evidence that Cisneros was depicted negatively. The trial was pushed ahead to January 31, 1994. The day of the trial, Martínez admitted that she conspired to kill Fischer and agreed to testify against Cisneros and Garza. By entering a plea bargain, Martínez was seeking to be sentenced for a conspiracy charge and to have the capital murder charges dropped. The judge stated that he was not bound by the plea bargain agreement, but clarified that she had the right to drop her guilty plea if she so decided.

Since the trial had received national attention, Brownsville officials were expecting a large crowd of spectators and reporters in the courtroom. In order to accommodate them, the trial was moved from the 357th State District Court to the 197th State District courtroom. On February 25, 1994, the jury examined the evidence from the bullet remains, the motel records, and photos of Fischer's corpse. Joey Fischer's brother Eric took the stand and described what he saw and heard the morning his brother was killed. He said when he heard the two gunshots, he looked through the window and saw a white car driving away. Fischer's sister Kathy told the jury that she and Cristina had once had a two-hour telephone conversation, and that Cristina had said that she wanted to "hurt" Fischer. Their school counselor stated that Cristina agreed she said this but claimed she did not mean it once she learned about Fischer's death. Cristina told the jury that she did not remember making such statements to Kathy and the counselor.

On March 2, the defense argued in court that Cisneros should be set free on bond during the trial because she did not pose a flight risk as demonstrated by her actions during the first trial. The defense stated that she never failed to appear in court during the 1994 trial even though she was facing a possible death penalty. In addition, they said she was a long-time resident of Brownsville and had no previous criminal history. Though Cisneros was aware of the FBI investigation, and the possibility of a new indictment against her, she had not fled, thus justifying her bond. On March 9, Cisneros was released from jail on a US$300,000 bond. The court ruled for the defense after deciding that she would not attempt to flee before the trial. Court officials imposed certain restrictions on her freedom, however. They asked her to hand over her U.S. passport and to limit her travel to the Brownsville and McAllen, Texas judicial districts. Her husband was also required to sign a document that made him a third-party custodian.

On March 3, 1993, Saint Joseph Academy high school senior Albert Joseph "Joey" Fischer Jr. was shot dead outside his home in Rancho Viejo, an upscale community north of Brownsville, Texas. Dora Cisneros, the mother of his ex-girlfriend, was responsible for orchestrating Fischer's murder after he broke up with her daughter Cristina. Fischer and Cristina had broken up the previous summer, but Cisneros became obsessed with their relationship and insisted that Fischer date her daughter again. After he refused a US$500 offer from Cisneros, she consulted María Mercedes Martínez, a fortune teller, to cast a spell on him.

On Wednesday, March 3, 1993, in Rancho Viejo, Texas, an affluent community just north of Brownsville, Fischer woke up early to get ready for school. Just before 7:00 am, he went to the garage and reversed his mother's car into the circular driveway at his home at 3 Cortez Avenue. He then walked toward the corner of the house and grabbed a garden hose to spray water on the car's windows, which were covered in dust. As he sprayed the car, someone came from behind and shot him twice at point-blank range with what would later be identified as a .38 Super pistol. One of the shots penetrated his chest and the other his brain. Fischer's mother looked out the window to see what had happened, thinking the noise came from one of the house's palm tree branches falling on the roof, or that the car had backfired. She did not see the car, and thought that perhaps her son had gone to a convenience store to pick up something, but Fischer's brother Eric told her he could see the car parked on the driveway.

During their second meeting, Cisneros asked Martínez to cast a spell on Fischer. Martínez said she was unable to do that, and Cisneros grew angry and left the store. A few days later, Cisneros called Martínez and asked her to pray for Fischer to get back together with Cristina. Cisneros returned for a third visit to Martínez's shop in October 1992, and asked her if she knew anyone willing to beat up Fischer. By winter, she changed her request and asked to have Fischer killed, offering US$3,000 to the person who would do it. According to Martínez, Cisneros told her that Fischer had raped Cristina and was telling his classmates at St. Joe that he had sex with her. However, Cristina said she never had sex with him. Although Garza assured Martínez that he would find someone to carry out the job, he kept calling and visiting her to discuss his marriage problems. Under pressure from Cisneros, Martínez would often interrupt the sessions with Garza to remind him of the plan. Garza lied to Martínez on several occasions telling her he had someone lined up to kill Fischer. Cisneros contacted Martínez in November to ask her why the job had not been done. Martínez responded that she did not know when the murder would be carried out. Garza eventually divorced his wife on January 4, 1993, and kept calling Martínez to tell her his personal problems had not been fixed. On January 9, he traveled to Brownsville from San Antonio to talk about the divorce, and Martínez reminded him that a client of hers wanted Fischer dead. She told him again that if he facilitated Fischer's murder, Garza's personal problems would be solved.

After Garza confessed to police in a written statement on March 31, 1993, he was not arrested immediately because he agreed to cooperate with them in their efforts to apprehend Martínez. Garza reached out to Martínez and told her that the assassins wanted more money. He met with her three times in April 1993 wearing a wire, and had Martínez agree to contact Cisneros to give Garza the money. Police arrested Martínez on April 6 and agreed to work with them to incriminate Cisneros. The next morning, she scheduled a meeting with Cisneros and told her that the assassins requested more money, and she needed to pay. They rode around Brownsville and Cisneros's voice was recorded. The police kept close to the car to stay within the transmitter's signal range. Only portions of the conversation were recorded because the police were unable to remain within range all the time. While in the car, Cisneros gave Martínez an envelope with US$500. Cisneros then asked Martínez if there was any evidence that she had orchestrated the murder. Cisneros mentioned Garza and a man known as "El Cortado," though investigators had no idea who he was. In the recorded conversation, there was no incriminating evidence against the gunmen. since there was no evidence that Cisneros employed them, or that the assassins murdered Fischer. The meeting concluded when police pulled the vehicle over and arrested Cisneros. She told a police officer that she owed Martínez some money, which Martínez later admitted was not the case.

On June 8, 1993, Garza was arrested at the Cameron County office in Harlingen having surrendered after an arrest warrant was issued. He was charged with capital murder and held at a county prison with a US$500,000 bond. Garza refused to comment on the arrest, and officers stated that they could not release details of his involvement other than that they had evidence he was involved in Fischer's murder. Arrest warrants were issued for Olivarez and Puentes Pizaña the day before. They were believed to be in Mexico, and police said they were working with Mexican officials to arrest the two men. On July 21, 1993, Mexican State Judicial Police arrested Olivarez, and his brother Alonso Bazaldúa Cepeda, in Matamoros on a December 1992 murder charge, and for the unauthorized use of a vehicle. However, both men were released at around 3:00 a.m. the next day after Olivarez showed the police a writ of amparo (similar to a writ of habeas corpus), which protected his constitutional civil rights. Following their release, the Brownsville police said there were reports that the two suspects were seen in Matamoros, and in Monterrey, Nuevo León, and that next time they tried to cross the international bridge, U.S. border agents would arrest them. Police records show that Olivarez was once arrested in Brownsville on September 12, 1992, for possession of a criminal instrument, but was released on bond the following day. He wrote on his bond application that he lived in Brownsville, though this information was false.

A state grand jury indicted Cisneros, Martínez, Garza, Olivarez, and Puentes Pizaña on July 28, 1993. Defense attorneys said they wanted to move the trial out of Cameron County because the case had attracted a lot of media attention in the local area. Martínez' defense attorney said he wanted to file a motion to change the venue, and have his client tried separately from the other accused. He also said that he would try to suppress a statement made by Martínez after she was arrested in April. On August 12, in a packed courtroom at the 357th State District Court house in Brownsville, Cisneros and Martínez pleaded not guilty to the murder charges. Garza also entered a not-guilty plea, and stood with the accused during the court session. The judge agreed to remove La Curandera (Healer-Fortune Teller) from Martínez' name on the indictment after the defense complained that the alias was a media creation. The judge set the hearing date for pre-trial motions for October 7, and the trial for November 8. On September 20, defense attorneys for Martínez and Garza filed motions to suppress statements their clients had made since March. Martínez's attorney said she did not understand her right to have a lawyer because she is not fluent in English, and that her arrest was unlawful. The defense asked the judge to discard the video and wire tap recordings because they claimed that their client was involuntarily coerced to make statements that incriminated her, and thus violated the Miranda warnings. Martínez' defense requested a court-appointed translator, the elimination of the indictment, and a severance to have their client tried separately. In addition, Garza's defense said that their client's constitutional rights were violated when he made his statements. They also said that Garza's encounter with Martínez after Fischer's murder was recorded without his knowledge.

On February 28, Garza's half-brother Moya testified against him and said Garza admitted he had received US$3,000 for Fischer's murder while he was in Brownsville. Garza's defense tried to discredit Moya's statements by saying he was facing drug offenses in Dallas, and was cooperating with prosecutors by testifying against Garza to receive a reduced sentence. Moya denied such arrangements were in place. He said the gun used at the murder scene was bought in Dallas while he was there, and he remembered seeing it in Garza's home in San Antonio. Records from the gun shop in Dallas showed Garza bought the same type of gun on February 1, 1993. In addition, a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) investigator testified he helped record the suspect's conversations, while a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) technician helped improve the clarity of the tapes. The defense attorneys brought in experts to discredit the recordings, and to prove they had been tampered with.

On March 1, defense attorneys questioned evidence brought by the prosecution. They pointed out that the police had no written reports of the investigation, and had failed to record the serial numbers and mark the US$100 bills used as evidence when Martínez received the cash from Cisneros immediately before her arrest. In addition, a private forensic investigator hired by the defense stated that he could not prove that the recordings were authentic. The private investigator later mentioned in an interview that the defense had paid US$18,000 to analyze the tapes, though she said that this payment did not influence her study of the recordings. The defense said the searches police conducted did not produce any evidence to implicate Cisneros in the murder, and that Garza was not arrested for over a month after he confessed his involvement in it. The police defended their actions and said that Garza was initially a witness when investigators met with him and Moya in March 1993 at a motel in San Antonio to discuss the murder. Investigators said he then traveled with them to Brownsville to give an official statement which he signed. He then stayed at a hotel in Brownsville that was arranged and paid for by Brownsville investigators, while the police prepared to record his encounter with Martínez. After incriminating Martínez, Garza was allowed to go to Mexico. Martínez and Cisneros were arrested several weeks after Garza's statement, but he was not arrested until two months later. The police stated that they made no promises to Garza to obtain his cooperation.

On April 1, the defense asked for the new trial to be moved outside Brownsville, claiming their client had received unfair treatment in the media and there was no chance for her to have a fair trial and an unbiased jury. The request included large numbers of magazines and newspaper articles published since 1993. It did not cite any specific passages where the alleged media bias was demonstrated. The defense also filed a motion to throw out the new indictment on the grounds that it was double jeopardy. On April 27, the judge decided to postpone his decision about where to hold the trial. He also rejected the defense motion stating that the new indictment was a case of double jeopardy. The defense argued that the prosecution had illegally used Brownsville and Houston grand juries to work on the case, but the judge countered that claim saying only the Houston grand jury had handled the case. On May 4, the trial was moved from Brownsville to Houston, Texas, because of the earlier extensive media coverage.

Fischer and Cristina often did outdoor activities together, but Fischer's stepmother thought they were only friends. She said that she never saw them hold hands or behave in a way that suggested intimacy. According to his friends, Fischer went with Cristina to South Padre Island, Texas, during spring break and had sex with her in her parents' condominium. They said that he did not brag about it, and in fact seemed to regret his decision. Cristina denied this ever happened. Later that year they attended St. Joe's prom together. In June 1992, Fischer broke up with Cristina; he told one of his friends that their relationship was only physical, and he did not feel an emotional attachment to her. Fischer had given Cristina his ring while they were dating, and once they broke up he asked her to return it. Cristina refused.

Police interrogated Garza at a San Antonio motel in mid-March. Garza claimed to have a landscaping business in Mexico, though police suspected that he was a drug dealer. After further questioning, Garza incriminated himself and said he had made arrangements to have Fischer killed. He told the police he confessed because he was troubled by what he had done. He was not arrested immediately because investigators needed more information from him to continue with the case. He told investigators that it started when he visited a local fortune teller after he separated from his wife in 1992. The fortune teller, María Mercedes Martínez de Sánchez, consulted with Garza for several sessions in an attempt to repair the relationship he had with his wife. Garza's son was born with muscular dystrophy and his wife was depressed, to the point where she wanted to kill herself and their son. Investigators said that Garza believed his wife's relatives had cast a spell on their marriage and he needed Martínez's help. They discovered that Martínez promised to help Garza if he agreed to help kill Fischer. Garza confirmed to the police Martínez was working with a "client" (Cisneros) who wanted Fischer, along with anyone who got in the way, dead. Cisneros visited her at least three times to consult with her after the break-up. During their first meeting, Cisneros wanted to know if Fischer felt anything for her daughter. Martínez read through her cards and told her he was no longer in love with Cristina. Cisneros paid US$5 for the card reading and left the shop upset with Martínez's answer.

According to U.S. border surveillance, a white Mercury Grand Marquis with Mexican license plates 821-THE7 crossed at Brownsville border entry at 6:39 pm. CT on March 2. This car had crossed to Brownsville from Matamoros eighteen times between August 1992 and March 1993. When police went to the motel to check the register, they discovered that at 8:26 pm. CT that evening, Puentes Pizaña and Ramón Palomares, another hitman of the Cuellar organization, checked in with the receptionist. She registered the car in her notebook as a white Grand Marquis, but it was unclear if she wrote 821-WEX or 821-THE7 as the license plate number. Other evidence showed that several calls were made from Puentes Pizaña's and Garza's rooms to an identical Dallas number on the day of the murder. The police were never able to connect the number with the investigation, or identify the Dallas contact. Other evidence showed that Garza, along with Cuellar and Moya, visited a gun shop in Dallas to purchase a .38 Super pistol. After Fischer was killed, Garza said that the gun was stolen from his house in San Antonio after someone broke into it. The weapon was never recovered.

The prosecution brought forward bank statements that showed that Cisneros withdrew US$5,000 from a US$100,000 family safety deposit box on July 7, 1992, and March 3, 1993, the morning Fischer was killed. The defense stated that there was nothing illegal about visiting the safety deposit box or making the withdrawal. They stated that the US$5,000 was for a family trip to Mexico. The prosecution suggested that the money was to pay off the murderers, but they were unable to provide evidence linking the two actions. On May 11, the defense introduced two witnesses to rest their case after six days of prosecution arguments. Most of the testimonies from the prosecution that day were done by Garza, who stated that Martínez never mentioned Cisneros' name as the person she was working with to have Fischer killed. Garza stated that he consulted Martínez on his marriage, but that she would interrupt to ask him if he had found anyone who was willing to carry out her client's request and hurt Fischer. Garza claimed that he had at least four calls from phone booths in San Fernando and Matamoros, two Mexican cities. The defense stated that Garza told the FBI that he made collect calls, but Garza said they were mistaken. He said that making collect calls from Mexico was difficult, though he did not discard the possibility of having made one to Martínez. The prosecution did not enter evidence showing that Garza made calls from Mexico to the U.S., and one of the defense witnesses showed that Martínez's phone bill did not have any collect calls from Matamoros. The defense stated that Garza made the claim of the phone calls from Mexico to get a reduced sentence, while Garza responded that he was testifying to make sure everyone involved in the murder gets punished. The defense responded by showing the jury letters from Garza's jail stating that he was willing to cooperate with the FBI in the trial for a reduced sentence. Garza responded by saying that those letters were written by one of his English-literate inmates on his behalf. The other defense witness was a restaurateur who saw Cisneros a few hours after the murder and recalled seeing her behaving normally.

Albert Joseph "Joey" Fischer Jr. was born in Brownsville, Texas, on January 16, 1975. His parents were A. J. "Buddy" Fischer and Corinne Nelson. The couple divorced in 1987 and remarried separately. Fischer lived with his mother and his stepfather Vernon "Beau" Nelson. He was a senior honors student at Saint Joseph Academy (St. Joe), a Catholic private school in Brownsville. He had a 98.5 grade-point average, was ranked eleventh in his class, and was going to attend the honors program at the University of Texas at Austin on graduation. At 18 years old, he enjoyed basketball and was a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers, loved computers, and talked about pursuing a career as an engineer. Along with two other classmates, he was voted "Most Sarcastic" by his high school class, and was known for sometimes acting foolish, and having a good sense of humor. He was also "often attracted to the more Latina girls of the school". During his junior year, he dated Cristina, who was a year younger than him. Most of Fischer's friends described her as quiet, although some said she was only reserved with people she did not know. Cristina's mother Dora Garcia Cisneros approved of Fischer's relationship with her daughter and thought he was potentially a good candidate for marriage. In Cisneros's eyes, Fischer was an overachieving student from a good family, and "wasn't wild, like many of the St. Joe boys".

In Matamoros and Brownsville, curanderos—practitioners of curanderismo—offered works of white and black magic. These services are known as brujería (witchcraft). People consult healers and fortune tellers for help with relationships: to revive their romance, to end a marriage, to make someone fall in love, or to hurt someone. People also consult them to drive away negative energy, predict the future and dangerous events, to improve their health, or to bring positive energy. Cisneros grew closer to curanderismo after her firstborn, David, died after being thrown from a moving vehicle by a friend while he attended St. Joe as a student in 1974. People close to Cisneros described her as a person who endured several tragic events growing up. One of her uncles committed suicide when she was young, and her brother drowned as a teenager. But, several others who were close to her maintained that after her son died, Cisneros started to show signs of insanity, became more protective of her children, and began visiting local curanderas.