Texas man gets 25 years in jail over deadly confrontation

Terry Thompson has been convicted and sentenced in the choking death of John Hernandez. Photo / AP

The husband of a former sheriff's deputy was sentenced to 25 years in prison today for the strangulation death of a man the couple confronted outside a Houston-area restaurant.

Prosecutors argued Terry Thompson wanted to kill 24-year-old John Hernandez and kept him in a chokehold even when he stopped resisting after Thompson confronted Hernandez about urinating in the parking lot of a Denny's restaurant in May 2017.

Thompson's lawyer countered that he was only defending himself after being punched and kept Hernandez subdued only until he stopped resisting.

Jurors denied a request by Thompson's lawyer to find that he acted with sudden passion and was unable to control his anger — which would have made him eligible for a lesser sentence of two years to 20 years.

The same jury convicted Thompson of murder on Tuesday.

Thompson's wife, former Harris County sheriff's deputy Chauna Thompson, arrived later at the restaurant and helped subdue Hernandez.

Chauna Thompson, who was off duty at the time and was later fired, faces a murder trial in April.

Chauna Thompson was in the courtroom as her husband's lawyer, Scot Courtney, asked jurors during closing arguments in the trial's punishment phase for a sentence that would allow his client to one day return to his family.

He described Thompson as someone who was friendly, hardworking and dedicated to his children.

"Terry Thompson is a good man. Did he make a bad decision and a bad mistake? There is no question of that," Courtney said.

But prosecutor John Jordan told jurors Thompson didn't deserve their mercy as he had a history of losing his temper and assaulting his children.

Jordan said there was no sudden passion in Thompson's actions, as he confronted Hernandez for 14 minutes, including keeping him in a chokehold for more than three minutes, even after Hernandez had signalled that he was no longer resisting.

"What mercy did he have when his own wife got to the scene and said, 'Get off (Hernandez)'?" Jordan said. "How in the world can you give him what he was not willing to give to another human being?"

Hernandez died at a hospital three days after the confrontation. A medical examiner ruled he died of lack of oxygen to the brain caused by strangulation and chest compression.

Hernandez's family has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the Thompsons, asking for at least US$1 million in damages.

This was the second time Thompson's case was before a jury. His first trial in June ended with a hung jury.
- AP