Death sentence will be sought in Hernandez case

Greg Tuttle

Monday, July 17, 2000 | 10:39 a.m.

Prosecutors will ask a jury to sentence a Las Vegas man to death for killing his ex-wife in front of the couple's 3-year-old daughter.

Fernando Hernandez, 36, was found guilty Friday of first-degree murder for the Oct. 6 slaying of Donna Hernandez. The penalty phase of the trial begins Tuesday morning.

The jury also convicted Hernandez of second-degree kidnapping and burglary while in possession of a weapon, charges prosecutors needed to support their case for the death penalty. Hernandez also was found guilty of sexual penetration of a dead body.

The convictions followed a three-day trial before District Judge Sally Loehrer. At the trial, Hernandez's defense attorneys admitted the man killed his ex-wife, but said he was not guilty of first-degree murder because he acted in a fit of passion.

First-degree murder is defined by state law as a killing that is willful, premeditated and deliberate.

Donna Hernandez was strangled and stabbed to death inside her Clifton Court home. Her body was found hours after her ex-husband was arrested for drunken driving near Searchlight with their child in his car.

The couple were seen together in the days before Donna Hernandez's death, defense attorneys said. And Fernando Hernandez was not armed when he went to the 38-year-old woman's home the morning of the killing.

The defense also argued Fernando Hernandez was not guilty of burglary because there was no evidence he forced his way into the home. Fernando Hernandez could not be guilty of kidnapping, defense attorneys argued, because after Donna Hernandez's death, he was the sole legal guardian of the couple's child.

But prosecutors said Hernandez had planned for months to kill his ex-wife and take the couple's child to Mexico. Donna Hernandez feared her estranged husband, prosecutors said, and had filed several protective orders against him since the couple divorced in 1996.

Hernandez told several people he planned to kill the woman, and he made a similar threat to Donna Hernandez's mother. Six months before the slaying, Fernando Hernandez drove his car into the woman's garage door and threatened her, resulting in the last protective order against him.

A Metro Police officer testified at the trial that after he stopped Hernandez near Searchlight for going 96 mph, Hernandez jumped out of his car and said, "Just shoot me, just shoot me."

The child, Anna Hernandez, was found strapped in a car seat. She told an officer that her father was taking her to Mexico. She later told police and family members that "Daddy hurt Mommy real bad," and "Daddy dead Mommy."

The girl did not testify at the trial.