In February 2010, a San Antonio-area man who was already reeling from the death of his girlfriend began receiving some truly terrifying messages.

The girlfriend, an apparent murder victim, was found beaten and strangled on the floor of her bathroom condo. Even though she was dead, the man started to get text messages from her phone a month after her body was discovered: "The tile is so cold. Happy anniversary," one said.

Of course, the text messages were not from the girlfriend. They were from the girlfriend's mother, who also drove by the boyfriend's home and sent him packages stuffed with gifts supposedly from the girlfriend, as well as clipped news coverage of her death.

Now that the boyfriend is on trial for the girlfriend's death, the mother's conduct is raising some serious and legitimate questions about whether the boyfriend was pushed into the role of suspect.

The boyfriend's criminal defense attorney noted that the girlfriend's parents called the lead detective investigating the woman's murder 28 times over the course of a year, met with the chief of police and conducted a "campaign of harassment" toward the boyfriend. This conduct raises the concern that police were rushed into arresting the boyfriend and that prosecutors were forced to bring the murder charges against him even before there was evidence to merit such an accusation.

Now, we all know that grief can do strange things to people. However, it is not right that the mother felt it necessary to take the law into her own hands and prematurely convict the boyfriend in her mind. We have a criminal justice system and that system must be allowed to work. Going vigilante like this is inappropriate. Hopefully, the mother will get the help she needs and will realize that what she has done is wrong.

Source: San Antonio Express News, "Slaying suspect was haunted by victim's mother," Craig Kapitan, Feb. 9, 2012