A man married to a Texas deputy has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for “squeezing the life from a man” inside of a Denny’s restaurant.
The murder, which happened in May of 2017, was caught on camera by a witness as well as a restaurant surveillance camera.
Video shows Terry Thompson mounted on top of John Hernandez, choking him outside a Denny’s restaurant in Crosby, Texas after witnessing him urinating.
Thompson was convicted of murder November 5 and only received 25 years for murder, which carries anywhere between five and 99 years in Texas, on Wednesday afternoon.
During the trial, Thompson declined to take the stand in his own defense.
Instead, his attorneys argued to the jury how apologetic he was for murdering Hernandez.
Prosecutors argued that Thompson became upset after pulling up to Denny’s with his young daughter and her friends to see Hernandez urinating in the parking lot.
Thompson yelled at Hernandez.
Hernandez pushed Thompson.
“Whack. That’s the response,” Scot Courtney, Thompson’s attorney, argued to the jury, according to Fox26.
“Are we going to say if someone gives you a black eye, you can kill them?” prosecutor Sarah Seely asked jurors.
Seely presented video, which was captured on Denny’s surveillance camera, to the jury.
“It took him (Thompson) ten seconds to take John Hernandez to the ground and stay on top of him for the next ten minutes,” she argued.
As the altercation continues for 10 minutes, several people attempt to remove Thompson off of Hernandez.
A Denny’s manager dials 911.
“If you guys don’t hurry up he’s gonna kill him.”
“If you think he intended to murder him from the get go, ask yourself, why?” Courtney, who claims his client was just holding Hernandez there until police arrived, said.
Jurors were asked to consider four possibilities.
They could find Thompson guilty of murder, if they believed he intended to murder Hernandez.
They could find him guilty of manslaughter, if the found him to be reckless in causing Hernandez’s death.
Another option was finding Thompson guilty of negligent homicide, if jurors found him negligent
Or they could return a not guilty verdict.
Harris County prosecutor John Jordan asked jurors to imagine struggling to breath for three minutes and 36 seconds,the amount of time after Hernandez taps out before his body goes limp.
“Your verdict has got to be murder.”
Chauna Thompson, Terry’s wife and former Harris County Sheriff’s deputy, also faces a murder charge for her role in Hernandez’s death.
