CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A judge has ordered assets tied to the estate of Johnny Canales to be frozen.

As KRIS 6 News reported, Sylvia Castillo filed documents claiming she is the only surviving wife of Juan “Jose” Canales, a Tejano TV show host who died in June.

Steven Lopez Law Office

A hearing on a motion for accounting and temporary injunction was held via zoom on Wednesday.

Castillo and his attorney, Steve Lopez, attended that hearing. So did Canales’ widow, Nora Canales, and her lawyer, Abel Cavada.

KRIS 6 News

At the start of the hearing, Cavada asked for the case to continue and said he only received the documents on Tuesday.

“We are not prepared to do anything. We must review the pleadings. We must amend our pleadings if necessary. There is too much controversy in this case to decide anything today, even their request for an injunction is premature. I just received notice yesterday,” Cavada said, “In fact, there are many facts and issues that will need to be revealed during the discovery process. This will be a highly contested case.”

He asked for two more weeks.

Judge Deanne Galvan of County Court No. 3 denied this request and said she had not received this request and that the hearing was to appoint a temporary administrator of the estate.

“As far as we know, she uses and administers this property without any sort of judicial oversight, which necessitated our demand for accountability as well as the temporary injunction to prevent her from spending, depleting or otherwise alienating let it be the property of the estate,” Lopez said.

Cavada responded, questioning Castillo’s assertion that she was legally married to Canales at the time of her death.

He claimed Castillo had been married and divorced three times since 1980.

After hearing from both attorneys, Galvan appointed Celeste Robertson as temporary administrator of the estate.

Although the assets were frozen, the judge ordered that Nora Canales be allowed to withdraw funds to cover her living expenses.

Archive photo KRIS

According to the copy of the motion for declaratory relief filed with the Nueces County Clerk’s Office, Castillo is seeking monetary relief of $250,000 or less and non-monetary relief.

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