A sign outside of the Methodist Dallas Medical Center. Photo by Rachel Stone.
The man who killed two workers at Methodist Dallas Medical Center last October was found guilty of capital murder by a jury Thursday afternoon.
The 12-person jury deliberated for an hour and a half before delivering the verdict that Nestor Hernandez, 31, knowingly or intentionally killed social worker Jacqueline Pokuaa and nurse Katie Flowers.
Hernandez was automatically sentenced to life in prison without the chance for parole. Dallas County prosecutors did not seek the death penalty.
Jury selection for the case began Monday and testimony lasted through Tuesday and Wednesday. Closing arguments were read Thursday morning. While deliberating, the jury watched hospital surveillance footage and police body camera footage from the time of the shooting.
The defense asked the jury to consider the lesser charges of murder, manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the case, arguing that Hernandez did not plan to slay the hospital employees. Defense lawyer Paul Johnson asked the jury to seek “justice and not revenge” in the case.
The prosecution’s closing argument stated that Hernandez entered the hospital with “anger with a plan to kill.”
Selena Villatoro, Hernandez’s former girlfriend, testified that Hernandez entered the hospital room holding a beer shortly after she gave birth and accused her of cheating on him.
“He was just telling me stuff like we’re going to die today,” she said.
Villatoro and other witnesses to the shooting testified that Hernandez then shot Pokuaa as she entered the hospital room and Flowers as he walked into the hallway firing his weapon.
While on the stand, Hernandez admitted he was high and had been drinking at the time of the shooting. Hernandez said he shot the women “not intentionally,” and that Pokuaa was shot while trying to break up a physical altercation between Hernandez and Villatoro. He said he then “panicked” and shot into the hallway, where Flowers was hit by gunfire.
Following the guilty verdict, friends and family members of Flowers who were present in the court room could be seen celebrating and thanking prosecutors.
At the time of the shooting, Hernandez was wearing an ankle-monitor and was on parole for a 2015 aggravated robbery. He had violated his parole multiple times before, including cutting off his ankle monitor earlier in 2022, police said.
The shooting inspired state legislation that would make it a felony with stiffened penalties for a parolee to cut off a court-mandated ankle monitor. The bill, which was presented in March, is part of a legislative package known as the Pokuaa-Flowers Act, named after the Methodist Dallas workers.
