HOUSTON (AP) – Prosecutors opened the murder retrial of a former deputy’s husband with a recap of the death of a man he and his wife confronted outside a Houston-area restaurant.
Terry Thompson is accused of murder by strangling 24-year-old John Hernandez with a chokehold outside a Denny’s restaurant in Crosby in 2017. His first trial in June ended in a mistrial.
Thompson’s attorneys reserved their opening statements for after prosecutors finish presenting their evidence.
Thompson and his wife, Chauna, are each charged with murder. Chauna Thompson was a Harris County sheriff’s deputy at the time of Hernandez’s death but was later fired. She has not yet faced trial.
Prosecutors have said Terry Thompson was the aggressor in the confrontation in which he held Hernandez in a chokehold, but Thompson’s attorneys have said he acted in self-defense.
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