Eddie Herrera Gets 25 Years For Choking Jacqueline Gomez During Rough Sex On Prom Night

Eddie Herrera has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for aggravated assault of his prom date, Jacqueline Gomez. The Texas man was accused of choking and killing the 17-year-old during rough sex in a hotel room.

Two years ago, Herrera and Gomez went to the MacArthur High School prom together and then stayed overnight at a Hyatt hotel in Houston. While in the room, the couple drank alcohol, took prescription painkillers, and had sex.

The next morning, Herrera woke up and found an unresponsive Gomez next to him in bed. He tried to give the teen CPR, but was unsuccessful in reviving her.

“I woke up. I tried waking her but she wouldn’t… I was screaming and crying telling her to wake up. But she didn’t. She didn’t,” he texted to a friend just after the young girl’s death.

Yet, instead of calling 911, Herrera contacted his mother, Melissa Martinez, who had also stayed in the same hotel. Herrera then dressed Gomez’s lifeless body and the pair waited nearly two hours before calling for help.

During the trial, one paramedic who was called to the hotel room testified that Gomez was already dead when he arrived. He also stated that it was unclear if her death was natural.

During interrogation months after Jacqueline’s death, Herrera explained to police that Gomez asked him to choke her during consensual sex, but she was still alive when the couple fell asleep.

“I put my hands on her neck and squeezed,” Eddie Herrera told Houston detectives.

Harris County medical examiners found a cocktail mix of alcohol and hydrocodone in Gomez’s system during the autopsy. However, they could not verify for certain if her death was caused by an overdose or by asphyxiation.

“With a combination of the alcohol and the hydrocodone, the body was already so depressed that it could not recover from those choking injuries,” Assistant District Attorney Justin Wood said Tuesday. “This is just extremely sad because it could’ve all been prevented.”

After the sexual encounter, Herrera said Gomez rolled over onto one side of the bed and they took a Snapchat picture together. He claims they talked about the future and plans to be together.

The coroner, however, didn’t agree with Herrera’s recollection of the events that night.

“She wouldn’t be able to breathe or be able to talk about her future with that kind of pressure,” he said, referring to the extensive bruising of her neck as revealed in the autopsy.

Even with the autopsy report and expert testimony, prosecutors could not definitely prove that Herrera, now 20, killed Gomez in 2014. After deliberating for two hours, the jury ultimately convicted him of aggravated assault, a first-degree felony.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Melissa Martinez is facing criminal charges for her part in Gomez’s death. According to authorities, she admitted to supplying the drugs and alcohol to the teens.

She also arranged for the hotel room. Herrera’s mother could spend two years in prison if convicted of various misdemeanors.

Mom: Teen was not supposed to stay at hotel after prom: Jacqueline Gomez was found dead in a hotel room after her… http://t.co/WsTmiaD4b2

— Neutral News (@neutralnews) May 20, 2014

Jacqueline’s mother, Juana Barron, has since filed a $1 million civil lawsuit against Martinez. According to court documents, Barron agreed to let Herrera take her daughter to the prom as long as Martinez brought Jacqueline home immediately after the prom was over.

After Martinez and Herrera picked up Gomez from home that night, they stopped at Deerbrook Mall and then went to the liquor store. The 38-year-old mom bought two bottles of Crown Royal Canadian whiskey.

After prom was over, Martinez did not bring Gomez home as promised. Barron called Martinez to find out what was going on and was told they were going to stop for dinner, according to the lawsuit.

In reality, Martinez was checking in the couple at the Hyatt hotel. The allegedly irresponsible mother later told police she gave the whiskey and 10 hydrocodone pills to her son.

“She wanted to be a cool parent,” Wood later said in court.

The defense attorney for Eddie Herrera continues to claim that the death of Jacqueline Gomez was a terrible accident and is planning to appeal the conviction.

[Photo by Bethany Clarke/Getty Images]