{"id":4025,"date":"2012-01-15T22:54:18","date_gmt":"2012-01-15T22:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.carnivalneworleans.com\/?p=4025"},"modified":"2012-01-15T22:54:18","modified_gmt":"2012-01-15T22:54:18","slug":"hernandez-gets-60-years-in-mardi-gras-killing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.carnivalneworleans.com\/?p=4025","title":{"rendered":"Hernandez Gets 60 years in Mardi Gras Killing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Austin,<\/a>

Austin, TX Mardi Gras Bar Poster<\/p><\/div>\n

This is an old story but a sensational one. I got it from The Austin, TX Statesman.com<\/a> By Steven Kreytak<\/a> | Monday, November 22, 2010, 06:50 PM<\/p>\n

UPDATE 9:15 p.m. <\/strong><\/p>\n

A Travis County jury has sentenced Martha Hernandez to 60 years in prison for murder in the killing of Christy Lynn Espinosa, whose body was found burning in eastern Travis County after she disappeared from a Sixth Street Mardi Gras celebration.<\/p>\n

Hernandez, 27, will be eligible for parole after serving half that time.<\/p>\n

Hernandez also received a 20-year term for tampering with evidence. The sentence will run concurrently.<\/p>\n

Her husband, Kenneth Hernandez, faces murder and tampering with evidence charges in the case and is scheduled to be tried next month.<\/p>\n

UPDATE 6:50 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jurors in Martha Hernandez\u2019s murder trial began deliberating a sentence at about 6:45 p.m. today after prosecutors implored them to issue a harsh punishment for the suffocation and burning of 21-year-old Christy Lynn Espinosa in 2009.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was an innocent victim that was out having a good time on Mardi Gras,\u201d said prosecutor Amy Meredith. \u201cShe did nothing wrong to this defendant. She did nothing wrong to Kenneth Hernandez. She did not deserve what happened to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this is not a life case I don\u2019t know what is,.\u201d Meredith said.<\/p>\n

Hernandez, who was convicted of murder and tampering with evidence earlier in the day, faces 5 years to life in prison.<\/p>\n

Defense lawyer Alexander Calhoun asked the jury to consider that Hernandez \u201cis a human being just like the rest of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted that Hernandez has two young children who love her. Calhoun did not ask for a specific sentence.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly the 12 of you can figure out what the appropriate sentence is,\u201d he said. \u201cI am going to ask you to give her a fair sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n

UPDATE 6:02 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Christy Lynne Espinosa\u2019s parents told a Travis County jury today that their daughter was a compassionate and giving person with a comedic streak whose loss has fractured their family.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a child, that\u2019s the happiest day of your life and when you lose a child, it\u2019s unbearable,\u201d said her mother, Dianna Espinosa. \u201cIf you were having a bad day you no longer were going to have a bad day because of Christy. She wanted to make sure she was going to make your day brighter.\u201d<\/p>\n

The testimony of Dianna and Antonio Espinosa came during the sentencing trial for Martha Hernandez, who earlier in the day was convicted of murder and tampering with evidence in Espinosa\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

Espinosa, 21, was suffocated after she disappeared from a Mardi Gras celebration on Sixth Street in February 2009. Her body was found burning off rural Imperial Drive in eastern Travis County hours later.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said she was killed by Hernandez, 27, and her husband, Kenneth Hernandez, who will be tried on the same charges next month.<\/p>\n

Hernandez could receive life in prison. The jury is expected to begin deliberating a sentence this evening.<\/p>\n

The only witness called by Hernandez\u2019s lawyers during the sentencing phase was Francisco Medina, Hernandez\u2019s older brother. Medina, 31, said his sister was the youngest of four children born to their parents in Sabinas, Coahuila, which is about an hour\u2019s drive south of the border at Eagle Pass.<\/p>\n

He said their father died when Hernandez was about three years old and he and his sister came to the United States to live with their mother when Hernandez was about 5 years old. Medina said her mother remarried and their stepfather, who worked at a mattress factory and later as a security guard, helped raise them.<\/p>\n

Medina said his sister eventually became an American citizen.<\/p>\n

Medina said when his sister was about 15 she was raped by a cousin, who fled for Mexico. When she was in ninth grade, he said, Hernandez got pregnant and dropped out of Stephen F. Austin High School.<\/p>\n

Medina said the family of four formed a band playing conjunto music and they traveled around Central Texas playing. Medina said his sister, who played drums and bass, quit that band after she married Kenneth Hernandez about five years ago.<\/p>\n

On cross-examination, prosecutor John Hunt asked about the rape accusation, noting that the man accused was 18 at the time. Hunt asked Medina whether his sister \u201cstated to the police that they just kind of started liking each other and that she didn\u2019t use the term rape?\u201d<\/p>\n

Medina said he did not know.<\/p>\n

Update 3:33 p.m.<\/strong> A jury has found Martha Hernandez guilty of murder and tampering with evidence in the February 2009 killing of 21-year-old Christy Lynne Espinosa, whose body was found burning in eastern Travis County after she disappeared from a Sixth Street Mardi Gras celebration.<\/p>\n

Friends and family of Espinosa, a Crockett High School graduate who worked as a waitress at Applebee\u2019s, wept after the decision was announced.<\/p>\n

Hernandez faces up to life in prison at the sentencing phase of the trial, which will begin this afternoon.<\/p>\n

Earlier:<\/strong> Prosecutors told a Travis County jury today that the truth will never be known about why 21-year-old Christy Lynne Espinosa was killed and set on fire following a 2009 Mardi Gras celebration on Sixth Street.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have to prove why someone did what they did,\u201d Assistant District Attorney Amy Meredith said during closing arguments of Martha Hernandez\u2019s murder and tampering with evidence trial today.<\/p>\n

What is clear, Meredith said, is that Hernandez is guilty of murder.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is absolutely guilty.\u201d<\/p>\n

The jury in state Distict Judge Bob Perkins\u2019 court began deliberating at about noon.<\/p>\n

In her argument, Meredith cited the evidence against Hernandez:<\/p>\n