HOUSTON – The fate of a man accused of strangling his date after their 2014 prom is now in the hands of a Houston jury.
Jackie Gomez, a 17-year-old MacArthur High School student, died in a Hyatt hotel room hours after her prom.
Jurors heard more disturbing details Tuesday about the hours leading up to her death.
Eddie Herrera is on trial for aggravated assault in connection with Gomez’s death. His mother, Melissa Martinez, is also charged because she provided the teens with alcohol and hydrocodone, according to investigators.
“Being supplied with the alcohol and the drugs is he culmination of a perfect storm. It just makes for a very sad situation,” said Assistant District Attorney Justin Wood.
An autopsy also showed that Gomez had also been strangled. Herrera initially told police it happened during rough sex, and Gomez seemed fine afterward.
“It was her [medical examiner's] feeling before that his original account of how things had happened in that hotel room were not really consistent with the injuries she observed,” Wood said.
Herrera later changed his story and admitted Gomez was unconscious after they had sex. He said he found her dead the next morning.
“With a combination of the alcohol and the hydrocodone, the body was already so depressed that it could not recover from those choking injuries,” Wood said. “This is just extremely sad because it could've all been prevented.”
The defense rested its case Tuesday without calling a single witness.
If convicted, Herrera could get five years to life. His mother will be tried at a later date. Police say Melissa Martinez booked the teens’ hotel room, gave them drugs and alcohol and lied to Gomez’s mother because she wanted them to “have a good time.”
Jurors will meet again Wednesday morning to continue deliberations.
