This undated photo provided by the Tarrant County Jail shows Hector Acosta-Ojeda. A jury has found the North Texas man guilty of capital murder in the fatal shooting and beheading of his roommate and fatal shooting of the roommate’s 17-year-old girlfriend as she tried to flee. (Tarrant County Jail via AP)
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A jury has found a North Texas man guilty of capital murder in the fatal shooting and beheading of his roommate and fatal shooting of the roommate’s 17-year-old girlfriend as she tried to flee.
The Tarrant County jury deliberated for more than five hours in Fort Worth before finding Hector Acosta-Ojeda guilty of capital murder in the September 2017 killings of Erick Zelaya and Iris Chirinos. Prosecutors will seek the death penalty when testimony begins Wednesday on sentencing. If a jury can’t agree on death, Acosta-Ojeda would receive a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without parole.
Prosecutors say Acosta-Ojeda shot Zelaya twice in the head while he slept and left his severed head on a trail near AT&T Stadium in Arlington after Zelaya admitted shooting at Acosta-Ojeda’s former home.
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