Austin man found guilty of girlfriend's murder
After hearing two weeks of evidence and testimony, a Travis County jury on Friday found an Austin man guilty of murder in the stabbing death of his girlfriend.
Sergio Gomez Herrada, now 37, was arrested in August 2019, a few days after relatives of Francy Martinez, 41, found her stabbed to death in her bathtub. He has not yet been sentenced.
Martinez started dating Gomez Herrada in 2017, and he moved in with her and her children in 2018. The two argued sometimes, but her daughter, Arantxa Duarte, testified that she never saw Gomez Herrada be violent toward her mother.
Before her death, Martinez had told friends that Gomez Herrada was a jealous person who would call her multiple times while she was at work to check on her, according to his arrest affidavit.
Duarte, who lived with her mother in Southeast Austin, last heard from her mom the morning of Aug. 3, 2019, the affidavit says.
Security camera footage from a house near Martinez's shows her arriving home around 6:30 p.m. that day, then speaking with Gomez Herrada in the front yard, the affidavit says. Martinez then walked into her house, and Gomez Herrada walked toward the garage.
At 8:07 p.m., the video captured Gomez Herrada getting into Martinez's car and driving off alone, the affidavit says. At 8:31 p.m., Gomez Herrada called Duarte and told her that he and her mother were going to be at a park in Georgetown. He asked when Duarte was going to get home from work.
Family members found Martinez's body behind the locked door of her bathroom the next day.
On the evening of Aug. 5, 2019, Gomez Herrada arrived on foot at a friend's house in Bastrop. Gomez Herrada told the friend that he'd had a fight with his partner, the friend testified this month.
Later, Gomez Herrada "told me that the police were coming for him," the friend, Walter Farris, testified through an interpreter. Gomez Herrada also told him he was going to leave for Mexico, Farris said.
Farris helped Gomez Herrada get out of the house and into the brush, he testified.
On the afternoon of Aug. 6, 2019, Austin police issued a statement saying that Gomez Herrada was at large and was a suspect in Martinez's killing. The next day, Gomez Herrada turned himself in to authorities and was arrested. He has been in jail since his arrest.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin man found guilty of girlfriend's murder
