Jury convicts Texas man in shooting, beheading of roommate

FORT WORTH, Texas – 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.