Closing arguments are expected Thursday after both the state and defense presented their cases Wednesday in the ongoing capital murder trial of a convicted felon who is accused of fatally shooting two Dallas hospital workers last year.
The defendant, 31-year-old Nestor Hernandez, took the stand in his defense Wednesday describing what happened after he carried a gun and a beer into a Dallas hospital in October 2022 following the birth of his son.
The case gripped the nation's attention last year after social worker Jacqueline Pokuaa and nurse Annette Flowers were both killed while working on the labor and delivery floor at Methodist Dallas Medical Center.
Police said Hernandez was out on parole but had permission to be at the hospital where his girlfriend had just given birth.
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Dallas Chief of Police Eddie Garcia said during a briefing with reporters last year that during Hernandez's visit with his girlfriend, he pulled a gun from his pants and struck her multiple times in the head. After the assault, Garcia said Pokuaa came into the room to provide routine services to the patient and that as she was working on the woman Hernandez got up, walked over to her, and shot her once. Garcia said Methodist Health Sgt. Robert Rangel was a few doors down investigating a stolen property call when he heard the gunshot. Another hospital employee, Katie Flowers, also heard the gunfire. Flowers, Garcia said, looked into the room and was shot by Hernandez as she stood in the hallway. Investigators said Hernandez reloaded his gun and started to leave his girlfriend's room but was confronted by Rangel and was shot in the leg.
Hernandez pleaded not guilty to his charges. While on the stand Wednesday, Hernandez admitted he and his girlfriend were fighting but said he didn't intend to shoot Pokuaa and that when she got between them the gun went off, fatally wounding her. He said he then panicked and fired blindly twice into the hallway, trying to keep anyone else from entering the room. He said he never saw Flowers and that after shooting into the hallway he tried to convince his girlfriend to give him the baby and move them away from the doorway, convinced someone would soon be coming into the room to kill him.
During cross-examination, agreed with prosecutors that the women were innocent and were just doing their jobs. When asked about killing them both, he said it wasn't intentional and that he would never do that.
Jurors also heard testimony Wednesday from forensic and crime scene investigators including the medical examiner who talked about the fatal injuries. Among the key evidence presented was Hernandez's pistol and graphic images of the aftermath taken by crime scene investigators.
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Testimony presented by the medical examiner contradicted Hernandez's account of what took place in the room. The ME said Pokuaa was not shot at close range and the bullet was lodged between her brain and neck. Nurse Flowers, the ME said, was shot at close range from about three feet away in the hallway and was shot through the left side of her face and had injuries to her throat and corratid artery.
A drug screen analysis revealed Hernandez had ketamine and methamphetamine in his system, though it's unclear if either had been prescribed. Hernandez said Wednesday he was coming off a meth high when he walked into the hospital. The beer he carried into the postpartum wing, Steel Reserve Spiked Watermelon, was also presented as evidence.
Shortly after 2:30 p.m., the state rested its case and that's when the defense put Hernandez on the stand. After he testified the defense called no other witnesses and also rested.
Closing arguments are expected to begin Thursday morning after which the case will be handed to the jury for deliberations and a verdict.
If convicted of capital murder, Hernandez faces a life sentence without the possibility of parole. The district attorney's office declined to pursue the death penalty in this case.
OPENING STATEMENTS, STATE BEGINS ITS CASE
On Tuesday, the first day of the trial, the courtroom was packed with the families of Flowers and Pokuaa. Many of them are wearing purple for Flowers' favorite color along with purple butterflies on their shirts that Dallas Methodist made for memorial services last year.
Opening statements on Tuesday were brief but pointed from each side.
"He took a beer, a gun and he had took [sic] a mindset of murder to the maternity ward at Methodist hospital," said one of the prosecutors.
The state also claimed Hernandez was found with gunshot residue on his hands.
Hernandez's defense team asked jurors to keep an open mind as they heard testimony and went through evidence and lobbied for a lesser charge of murder, arguing that he didn't know he'd shot Flowers in the hallway.
"Do not make your mind up about anything until you form your own opinion because I submit to you - guilty to a lesser offense of murder - not capital murder," said defense attorney Paul Johnson.
As the state opened its case, prosecutors jumped right into some big witnesses, including Pokuaa's brother and Flowers' daughter, who each spoke about the dedication both women had to their careers and the people they took care of at the hospital.
Next, Selena Villatoro, Hernandez' ex-girlfriend, took the stand on Tuesday morning. She is a key witness because she had just given birth to their baby the day before he was granted permission to visit her at the hospital. She described the moments of rampage after he arrived at the hospital room with a beer and a gun, as he accused her of cheating on him.
“He’s opening the closet door, slamming them. The next thing, he's sliding a desk, he throws it and he hits me with the gun," Villatoro told the courtroom.
"He told me to stop playing with him … and that we're going to die today. He was saying that whoever would walk in the room was going to die with us," Villatoro testified. "He was saying that we were going to make the news."
The prosecution showed photo evidence of her injuries from when he hit her with a pistol during the ordeal.
She continued to describe in tragic detail the moments Pokuaa and Flowers were fatally shot. Pokuaa was shot first when she entered the room. Villatoro said he then tried to take the baby away from her while still holding the gun. She testified that he hit her several more times with the weapon.
She said he also threatened to harm their baby.
Another witness, longtime hospital employee Stacey Smith, was called up next. Smith, who was the charge nurse the day of the shooting, said she came face to face with the gunman -- who she described as having a “smirk on his face."
Hernandez was wearing an ankle monitor at the time and had two felony convictions for aggravated robberies in Dallas in 2011 and another in 2015. But he also had prior parole violations, including cutting off his ankle monitor just months before the shooting. He was still able to get permission to visit his girlfriend at the hospital despite this.
The case led to a change in Texas law. Earlier this year, Senate Bill 1004 was proposed and passed after the shooting, with Gov. Greg Abbott signing it into law this summer.
Under the law, parolees and people out on bond will face a felony charge if they knowingly remove or disable their ankle monitor. Previously, messing with an ankle monitor was just an administration violation and not a criminal offense
