A 31-year-old Texas man was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Thursday for the killings of two hospital workers after his girlfriend gave birth in 2022, according to reports.
Nestor Hernandez was convicted of capital murder in the Oct. 2022 deaths of social worker 45-year-old Jacqueline Pokuaa and 63-year-old nurse Katie Annette Flowers, the Dallas County district attorney’s office said.
The two women were fatally shot in the maternity ward of Methodist Dallas Medical Center.
“At the time this crime occurred I vowed to see that justice was done, and I am satisfied to say that’s what we’ve accomplished,” Dallas County Criminal District Attorney John Creuzot said after the verdict. “I say this knowing that justice is no replacement for these two innocent lives lost nor does it repair the trauma inflicted on the staff, officers, and other families at the hospital on that tragic day, however, we have ensured that Mr. Hernandez will die in prison.”
Hernandez was out on parole and visiting his girlfriend who had just given birth when he allegedly accused her of cheating on him, hit her on the head and then fired his gun at the two women when they entered the room.
“He is a coward,” George Lewis of the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office said during closing arguments. “He brought their drama to these women.”
On Wednesday, Hernandez testified that he didn’t plan to kill anyone. “I wasn’t thinking right. I just wasn’t,” he said.
Hernandez claimed he was fighting with his girlfriend when Pokuaa “tried to stop the fight. She got in between us…and the gun went off. I was kind of confused for a little bit and she said, ‘What did you do? This is your fault…this is your fault.'”
“I lost my momma because she cared more about your son than you did,” Flowers’ daughter said during sentencing, Fox4 reported. “But you don’t care about any of this, if you did, we wouldn’t be here in the first place.”
Flowers’ granddaughter said she had to “endure the trauma of her being murdered, a middle schooler listening to the detectives describe how you killed her, and now I’m 15 having to live it again this week.”
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