Jury deliberates man’s fate in chokehold trial
Prosecutors, defense differ in accounts of fatal confrontation
Jurors deliberated the fate of Terry Thompson late Thursday, after his defense attorney and state prosecutors gave them dramatically contrasting arguments about how and why he put a young Houston father in a chokehold last year that caused his strangulation.
Prosecutors told the jury in closing arguments that Thompson, a 42-year-old railroad worker, took a second step after putting John Hernandez, 24, in a chokehold that showed his intent was to kill and not just detain him. Thompson arrived at a Denny’s in the Crosby area and confronted Hernandez, who was urinating in the parking lot.
“He didn’t just say he put him in a chokehold,” prosecutor Jules Johnson told jurors, quoting from Thompson’s statement he gave police at the scene. “He said he put him in a chokehold and then he ‘applied it.’ ”
The circumstances of Hernandez’s death rose to national prominence after a 53-second cellphone video was published last year showing Thompson, who had pinned Hernandez face down on the sidewalk, holding his neck in a chokehold on the walkway outside a Denny’s in the Crosby area.
The bystander video spurred a massive protest across downtown Houston and raised concerns over racism and police bias since Thompson was assisted during the struggle by his wife, who was then a deputy sheriff.
Thompson told police Hernandez punched him in the eye, starting the fight that ended when he lost consciousness in a chokehold. Hernandez died at a hospital three days later.
As he arrived with his teenage daughter and two of her friends, he told police, he saw Hernandez urinating in the parking lot. Thompson said he confronted the 24-year-old, who was intoxicated and had also just arrived at the restaurant with his wife and young daughter.
Thompson’s wife arrived during the confrontation in a different vehicle. She is also charged with murder, accused of helping her husband hold Hernandez down.
‘Way over the top’
In the seventh day of the trial, prosecutors argued that Thompson initiated the confrontation by shouting at Hernandez, then blocking his way back into the restaurant.
If, prosecutors said, Hernandez threw the first punch, it was a black eye, not deadly force.
“The punishment for urinating in a parking lot, or punching someone in the face one time, is not public execution,” said Assistant Harris County District Attorney Patrick Stayton.
Stayton told the jury that if hitting someone in the face was justification for the use of deadly force, dead bodies would be picked up in the parking lots of schools and sporting venues every day.
“What you’ve seen in this trial is the response of Terry Thompson to being hit in the face went way over the top very, very quickly,” said Stayton.
Defense attorneys for Thompson, who rested Thursday without calling a single witness, told the jury their client was just trying to hold Hernandez down until the police arrived.
“There’s no evidence that Terry Thompson was doing anything other than trying to restrain John Hernandez,” defense attorney Scot Courtney told jurors. “It’s a struggle. It’s a fight with a very drunk person.”
Courtney argued that Thompson should he found not guilty because he was acting in self-defense.
“If he has a right to defend himself, he has a right to defend himself,” Courtney said. “They were fighting. What’s important is Mr. Hernandez started the fight.”
He also pointed out that the way the murder charge was written, prosecutors have to prove three ways Thompson caused the death.
“The state has to prove death by strangulation, holding and maintaining pressure, while placing the weight on his body of John Hernandez,” Courtney said. “They have to prove all three.”
Jurors have options
Jurors began deliberating about 4 p.m. Thursday. They have the option of finding Thompson guilty of murder, for intentionally killing; manslaughter, for recklessly causing the death; or criminally negligent homicide, for causing the death through negligence.
If he is convicted of murder, he faces a maximum punishment of life in prison. If the verdict is manslaughter, he faces 20 years. If the jury decides he committed criminally negligent homicide, he faces 10 years maximum.
State District Judge Kelli Johnson told jurors that if they do not reach a verdict Thursday, they will be sequestered overnight at a local hotel, without television or phones.