Hernandez gets 60 years in murder conviction

Mar. 11—An Ector County man was sentenced Friday to 60 years in prison in the August 2018 shooting death of his cousin.

Misael Marquez Hernandez's attorney, Kevin Acker, tried to convince the jury his client was overcome by "sudden passion" when he shot Jacob Escobedo, 30, to death, but the jury rejected that idea after deliberating about an hour Friday morning.

The jury had already dismissed the idea that Hernandez, 33, killed Escobedo in self-defense and convicted him of murder on Thursday.

Escobedo was killed in the early morning hours of Aug. 11, 2018, outside his uncle's home on Coen Street in Pleasant Farms. Hernandez was arrested later the same day at his girlfriend's house in Odessa.

Acker had argued Escobedo was high on cocaine and alcohol, the two argued and Hernandez was forced to shoot him in self-defense.

During the trial, the jury heard testimony that the two men spent Aug. 10, 2018, eating barbecue chicken and drinking beer with their uncles and an aunt and Escobedo was found dead the following morning by one of the uncles. Hernandez, who lived and worked with the victim, was gone and authorities immediately began looking for him.

Investigators found a 9 mm handgun in Hernandez's possession when they arrested him and tests later proved it was the gun that was used to kill Escobedo.

On Thursday, Hernandez took the stand for the first time during his trial and told jurors his version of what happened the night Escobedo died. Speaking through a Spanish-language interpreter, Hernandez said he and his cousin were getting along fine up until five minutes before the shooting when they began to argue about work.

Hernandez testified he was sitting in the front passenger seat of one of their work trucks when Escobedo suddenly hit him from the back seat with his fists and what he believed to be a tequila bottle. They both got out of the truck, but Hernandez said he got back inside because he didn't want to have a fistfight.

His cousin kept arguing with him from outside the driver's side door and threw a beer can at him, striking his shoulder, Hernandez said. He pulled his 9 mm gun out of a side pocket in the truck's door because he was frightened and when Escobedo opened the door and threatened to beat him and take the gun away from him, Hernandez said he shot him.

When he got out of the truck he could hear Escobedo moaning, but he couldn't see him. Still scared, Hernandez said he fired three more times toward Escobedo.

"It was dark. I don't know if he was moving or not," Hernandez said. "I was nervous. I wasn't thinking clear."

He didn't call 911 because he was scared and his uncle, Rodrigo Cerda, didn't answer the door when he knocked, Hernandez said. He walked down U.S. 385 until he got to the convenience store where his girlfriend worked and then went home with her at the end of her shift.

"I was crying. I was nervous. I was shaking. That was the worst night of my life," Hernandez said.

During Hernandez's interview with Ector County Sheriff's Office Investigator Javier Leyva, Hernandez said Escobedo had hit him once inside the truck and never mentioned the tequila bottle. He also never mentioned Escobedo opening the truck door or wanting to take the gun away from him. Nor did Hernandez mention knocking on his uncle's door to seek help.

When First District Attorney Greg Barber reminded Hernandez he acted out the shooting during his police interview, Hernandez continued to insist, "I really didn't know what I was shooting at."

According to court testimony, authorities found four spent casings at the scene and Escobedo was shot four times, with two of the wounds proving fatal.

Hernandez said he only brought the gun to the cook-out because he and Escobedo liked to fire it in the air, but said he didn't really know a lot about guns. However, he acknowledged that was indeed him in pictures Barber shared with jurors showing him holding six different guns on six different occasions.

In speaking to the victim's family, Hernandez said he'd like to ask them for forgiveness, saying Escobedo's death hurts him "all of the time."

"It was not premeditated, it just happened," he said.

Had the jury found that Hernandez was overcome with sudden passion due to fear, anger, resentment or terror, they could have given him a prison sentence of 2-20 years. Since they did not, they had the option of sending Hernandez to prison for life or anywhere from 5-99 years.