AUSTIN, Texas — A man accused of killing his girlfriend in southeast Austin in 2019 has been found guilty of murder.
A Travis County jury convicted Sergio Jose Gomez-Herrada, 37, on Friday, Oct. 14, the Travis County District Attorney’s Office said.
On Aug. 8, 2019, the Austin Police Department arrested Gomez-Herrada and charged him with the murder of Francy Vanessa Martinez, 41. Gomez-Herrada was indicted on Sept. 20, 2019, for murder.
Martinez was found dead in her bathroom on Aug. 4, 2019.
That month, KVUE spoke with family and friends of Martinez, including her little brother, Erik Torres.
"She was like a mother to me," Torres told KVUE at the time. "She was a wonderful mother, great sister and good friend."
Torres said he never really trusted Gomez-Herrada but was still shocked this happened.
"I know that more time passes, more hard it's going to be because we know we're not going to see her again," Torres said.
According to an affidavit for Gomez-Herrada's arrest, police spoke with the woman's daughter the day after Martinez's death.
Martinez's daughter said that she had not seen her mother since the previous morning. Her daughter said that she had noticed that her mother's red Toyota Camry was missing from her driveway when she got home from work Saturday night. After Martinez's death, APD asked the public to be on the lookout for her Camry. The vehicle was later found off Ben White Boulevard.
The daughter said she got a text from Gomez-Herrada on Saturday saying that the two of them were going to be home late.
Her daughter said that by the morning of Sunday, her mother's car was still missing. She said she continued to call and text her mother and her mother's boyfriend all day but didn't get a response. That's when her daughter called 911 to report that her mother was missing.
While waiting for officers to arrive, the daughter checked her mother's bedroom with her cousins' help. They discovered that the master bathroom was locked. One of the cousins was able to break into the bathroom, and that's where they found Martinez's body.
“Our office is committed to holding people who commit acts of violence accountable,” Travis County District Attorney José Garza said. “We hope this verdict brings closure and peace to the victim’s family.”
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