Retrial scheduled in chokehold slaying
DA moves forward in killing of man at restaurant in 2017
A second murder trial of the husband of a fired Harris County deputy has been scheduled for October, following a mistrial in June on charges he choked a fellow patron to death during a latenight confrontation outside a Denny’s restaurant.
After a mistrial that came within a few votes of a not-guilty verdict in the high-profile murder trial of Terry Thompson, it wasn’t immediately clear what charges the Harris County District Attorney’s Office would pursue when they announced plans to bring the case back to court for a retrial.
“We’ve once again reviewed and considered the evidence in the death of John Hernandez,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement at the time. “It has been determined that Terry Thompson will be tried again for this homicide — allowing a jury of his peers to resolve this case.”
That left open the possibility that prosecutors would only go for a lower charge the second time around. But now, the 42year-old railroad worker is scheduled for a status conference Oct. 8 and a murder trial Oct. 18.
Thompson is accused of killing Hernandez in May 2017 after placing him in a chokehold during a 15-minute struggle outside the northeast Harris County diner. The fatal encounter began when Thompson admonished Hernandez for urinating in the parking lot, and Hernandez responded by striking the rail worker in the face.
The case drew national attention when Thompson and his wife, former Harris County sheriff’s Deputy Chauna Thompson, were recorded on camera holding down the 24-year-old Hernandez. He lost consciousness on the pavement outside the restaurant, and died days later in a hospital.
The 53-second video spurred protests downtown, but when prosecutors brought the case to court it ended in a mistrial when 11 jurors voted not guilty on the murder charge. Ten voted not guilty for the lesser charge of manslaughter, and eight agreed Thompson was not guilty of criminally negligent homicide.
But given the jury’s vote the first time around, it could be an uphill battle retrying the case, defense attorney Scot Courtney said at the time.
“They’ve decided that — notwithstanding the jury’s earlier splits for not guilty — that they’re going to go forward,” he said Tuesday. “I’m not sure what would convince them otherwise.”
Previously, he had expressed disappointment about the district attorney’s decision to retry the case, predicting that the split decision leaning toward not guilty would send a strong message to what the outcome might be a second time around.
Earlier this summer, the mistrial sparked discontent among activists. After hearing of the new trial date, FIEL director Cesar Espinosa on Tuesday offered a statement supporting the Hernandez family.
“We would hope that [the family] did not have to endure this painful procedure once more but we understand that to get justice we must go through the court process,” he said.
“The family feels glad that their son’s murderer will go on trial again and they would like for this new trial to be done in a diligent manner.”