Severity of neck injuries at center of prom date case

A Houston teenager who died in a hotel room after her senior prom had neck injuries so severe they likely rendered her unconscious, prosecutors said Tuesday.

"She had hemorrhaging through every layer of her neck," Assistant Harris County District Attorney Justin Wood told jurors in closing arguments of 20-year-old Eddie Herrera's trial. "Anybody who is able to inflict that kind of injury is doing it with intent."

Wood urged jurors to convict Herrera of assault for his role in the death of 17-year-old Jacqueline Gomez.

The severity of Gomez's injuries is at the heart of the case against Herrera, who is charged with the first-degree felony of assaulting someone in a dating relationship. If convicted, he could face life in prison.

Gomez, his date to the senior prom on May 16, 2014, died in the hotel bed next to him. But because both of the teens drank a large amount of alcohol and took prescription painkillers, her cause of death remains uncertain. Herrera is not accused of murder, but of causing serious bodily injury by choking the teen.

He told police the two were having consensual sex when she asked him to "squeeze" her neck.

Defense lawyer Doug O'Brien said Gomez died of an overdose and reminded the jury that her body showed little bruising on her neck.

"I think the injuries have been blown way out of proportion from what I've seen," O'Brien said. "Does anyone actually believe that he had any intent to cause her serious bodily injury? They were happy that night."

The jury of 10 men and two women deliberated about an hour Tuesday and are set to resume deliberations Wednesday in state District Judge Vanessa Velasquez's court.

Herrera told police his mother helped him rent the hotel room and bought two bottles of whiskey that the couple drank after prom. His mother is also charged with possession of a controlled substance for allegedly giving the teens 20 pills of hydrocodone, a prescription painkiller.

It was the alcohol and pills, Herrera told police, that obscured his memory. He said he and Gomez began having sex and she asked him to "squeeze" her neck. He said it was only for a few minutes and after the sex, they talked and eventually went to sleep.

The prosecutor painted a darker picture of a drug-addled 18-year-old who wrapped his hands around the teen's throat and choked her out, then passed out next to her.

"We have to take his word that it was consensual sex," he told jurors.

Herrera, who broke down during testimony Monday when photos of Gomez's body were shown, wiped his eyes continually during closing arguments but seemed ready to lash out at the prosecutor when he suggested there may have been a sexual assault.

Bailiffs standing behind him in the courtroom quietly admonished him to keep his composure.