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GOMEZ PLEADS GUILTY TO MURDER

By CASEY KNAUPP, Staff Writer May 17, 2005

GUILTY: Hersain Gomez appears in 114th District Court on Tuesday in Tyler, where he was sentenced to 40 years in prison for capital murder.(Staff Photo By Tom Worner)


Jackie Barr sent off 21 yellow balloons the day her son would have turned 21. Every Christmas, she visits his grave and lights a tree.

On Tuesday, Mrs. Barr finally got some closure in her son Jeffery "Adam" Carrier's violent murder, she said, when the fourth man charged with his death pleaded guilty.

Hersain "Demon" Valdovinos Gomez was sentenced to life in prison, the mandatory sentence for the capital murder conviction. He will be eligible for parole in 40 years, when he is 65 years old.

"The judge sentenced you today but one day The Judge is going to sentence you ... He'll be the judge. He'll be the jury. He'll be the person who hands down your final sentence in life. God help you," Mrs. Barr told Gomez as she sobbed from the witness stand.

Matt Cox told Gomez he had waited five years to meet him face to face. He said when Gomez took the life of his brother and best friend, he took his world away.

Cox said Carrier didn't deserve the "senseless" beating he received and cried as he described how he had to view the body.


Judge Cynthia Stevens Kent, of the 114th District Court, told the victims that filling the void left by Carrier's death would be difficult but there was some consolation in Revelations, which she quoted from the Bible. She told them to try to put away the horror of the murder and try instead to fashion their lives with positive things.

Gomez, who was scheduled to go to trial in a few weeks, pleaded guilty to beating Carrier to death in the commission of robbery July 1, 1999. The 25-year-old fled to Mexico with co-defendant Susana Arroyo. He was arrested for the Tyler charge June 16, 2004, and brought back to Smith County on Feb. 5 by U.S. marshals.

Ms. Arroyo remains in a Mexican jail awaiting extradition to Texas.

The state waived the death penalty in Gomez's case in order for his extradition. Prosecutors also had to agree with Mexican authorities to not prosecute the defendant for any pending cases he had against him. Gomez was on probation when he committed the murder. Around the same time, he was also charged with burglary and bail jumping.

Defense attorney Kelly Pace, who represented Gomez with Leslie McLean, said Mexican authorities also demanded Gomez not receive a sentence of life without parole. If convicted of the other charges, the sentences could have been stacked and the punishment could have been the equivalent to a life without parole sentence, he said.

Gomez made a statement after the judge assessed his punishment. He said he, Ms. Arroyo and Crystal Garcia were the only actors involved in the murder. He did not apologize to the family or show any apparent remorse during the hearing.

Ms. Garcia, who was 14 at the time, pleaded guilty to capital murder and was sentenced to 20 years as a juvenile. Armando Hinojosa, Michael Thompson and Christina Martinez were all sentenced to life in prison for their roles in Carrier's death. Prosecutors said the co-defendants were involved in a gang but Carrier was not.

After the hearing, Mrs. Barr said she was glad the prosecutors made an agreement with Gomez to plead guilty, which made it a little easier on the family that has sat through trials of other co-defendants.

She said the family, which lives out of state, has made a lot of friends in Smith County since her son's death.

"Adam is in our heart every day. There's never a day that goes by that we don't think about him," she said.

Mrs. Barr said she believed Gomez was "evil" and would have to be to beat her son the way he did.

Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham said the case has been especially hard on the family. Most victims go through the trial process one time and they've been through it four times with one more to go.

He said he would have sought the death penalty if Mexico would have allowed it. But since prosecutors wanted Gomez back in Smith County for conviction, they had to agree with Mexican authorities. He said Gomez would have received the same mandatory life sentence if he would have been convicted by a jury.

As to Mexico's mandate that no one will be extradited to Texas if facing the death penalty, Mrs. Barr said, "I feel like if we're going to allow them into our country and they commit a felony here, they ought to have to pay the price just like a U.S. citizen would pay the price."

Bingham said it is frustrating when a defendant flees to Mexico "like a coward" and receives a benefit for it.

Gomez's case was First Assistant District Attorney Brett Harrison's last case to prosecute for Smith County. The No. 2 prosecutor in the District Attorney's Office is leaving his post Friday. He gave notice of his departure more than a month ago but waited until Gomez's case was disposed of before he leaves Friday to enter private practice. Harrison has tried two other cases involving Carrier's death.

According to earlier reports, Carrier, 18, and a friend, Aaron Daniel Warren, 18, were visiting East Texas with Carrier's mother. On July 1, 1999, they reportedly met six Hispanics at Kilo Land Park in Henderson County. The group left in two vehicles and went to a remote wooded location in the 200 block of Skidmore Lane, where the groups separated and Carrier's tire was cut.

Bingham said as Carrier tried to change the flat tire, Gomez picked up the spare and beat him over the head. Carrier tried to fight back but Ms. Arroyo began hitting him repeatedly with a tire tool.

According to court testimony, Gomez and Ms. Arroyo allegedly dragged Carrier into the woods, stabbed him multiple times and cut his throat. As investigators began to close in on Gomez and Ms. Arroyo, the pair fled.

Gomez's brother, Benito, was charged with two counts of hindering apprehension after he admitted to aiding the fugitives in fleeing to Mexico.