Witness describes chaotic fight scene at restaurant
Ex-server testifies victim, defendant in ‘quite a struggle’
A Houston railroad worker and the young father he is accused of killing during a latenight confrontation at a Denny’s restaurant fought, wrestled and rolled around on the concrete sidewalk in front of the Crosbyarea diner before the encounter turned fatal, witnesses testified Monday.
Using grainy surveillance video and eyewitness testimony, lawyers for Terry Thompson, who is accused of killing 24year-old John Hernandez by pinning him to the ground in a chokehold last year, continued efforts to show that Thompson was just trying to get the other diner patron to stop fighting.
“They were both rolling around fighting, weren’t they?” defense attorney Scot Courtney asked Israel Jaquez, who was called as a witness for the prosecution.
“Yes, sir,” said Jaquez, a 19year-old former server at the restaurant.
“He’s on top of Thompson, isn’t he?” Courtney asked, noting that Hernandez for a time was straddling Thompson. “That’s quite a struggle, isn’t it?”
“Yes, sir,” Jaquez agreed.
Who’s the aggressor?
The eyewitness account topped the fourth day of testimony in the murder trial, which has made national headlines after bystander cellphone video of the fatal struggle surfaced and sparked a massive protest after the May 28, 2017, incident. Prosecutors at first accepted assault charges against Hernandez but later charged Thompson and his wife.
Thompson is married to Chauna Thompson, a former Harris County sheriff’s deputy who was also at the restaurant and has been charged with murder, accused of helping to hold Hernandez down. She was fired by Sheriff Ed Gonzalez after Hernandez’s death last June.
The defense has contended that Hernandez was intoxicated and urinating in the parking lot when Thompson confronted him for exposing himself to Thompson’s teenage daughter and two other girls. The defense has argued that Hernandez — who was 5 feet, 11 inches tall — initiated the fight by delivering the first punch and gave Thompson — who is 5 feet, 8 inches tall — a black eye.
Prosecutors have argued that Thompson choked Hernandez for several minutes after he passed out, killing him. He was transported in a coma to LBJ Hospital, where he died three days later after being taken off of life-support.
‘He was tapping out’
On Monday, Jaquez also testified that he saw Hernandez “tapping out” once he was on his belly with Thompson straddling him.
“He was struggling to breathe,” Jaquez told jurors. “He was tapping his hand on the concrete. He was tapping out.”
Last week, jurors heard from Hernandez’s widow, who said her common-law husband got drunk and head-butted her during an argument about three months before he was killed.
“When he gets drunk, he isn’t himself. He gets mean, ” said Maria Toral, his 25-year-old common law wife.
Earlier, Toral had painted him as a loving father with whom she fell in love when they were both 19.
One of the first witnesses in the trial was Blake Wise. The metal worker was leaving Denny’s before the incident and told the jury a drunken Hernandez picked a fight with him in the moments they passed each other in the parking lot.
Wise said he was concerned that Hernandez had driven his late-model Toyota pickup with Toral and their 4-year-old daughter.
As Wise got into his truck, the intoxicated Hernandez apparently believed he was getting a gun out and shouted that he had gun as well. Wise called 911 as he drove away and reported Hernandez.
Monday’s testimony was rounded out by Denny’s employees, including servers Bryan Riefkohl and Melissa Trammell, who both testified they tried to get Thompson to let Hernandez go.
“He was fighting for his life,” Trammell told jurors.