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Hernan Cortez Hernandez, 26
Hearing complaints that the GPS tracker was "uncomfortable" to wear with his work boots, a local judge March 22 removed the tracking stipulation from the requirements of a 26-year-old man accused of assaulting his pregnant girlfriend and beheading a pet bird.
A Nederland man, identified as Hernan Cortez Hernandez, was arrested last December after allegedly beheading a pet bird and assaulting his pregnant girlfriend following accusations of her being unfaithful. Nederland police officers were dispatched to Nederland Avenue in reference to a disturbance involving Hernandez assaulting his girlfriend, who was five months pregnant at the time.
The victim told officers Hernandez was mad at her for the way she spoke to a patron at the restaurant where she works as a bartender. Hernandez accused the victim of cheating when she arrived home. He then began assaulting her by punching her several times. Officers observed multiple scratches on the victim’s face, stomach and right side, as well as bruises on both arms.
The woman told officers she was initially too afraid to call 911 for help because Hernandez told her he’d send someone to kill her if she did. And taking lives is well within Hernandez’s ability, according to the indictment, as evidenced by an animal cruelty charge for killing a pet bird belonging to his girlfriend’s mom.
Hernandez told his girlfriend that he killed the bird before he turned his violence on her. Hernandez showed his girlfriend the dead bird in a trash can before taking its severed head and throwing it at the woman. Hernandez was arrested for assaulting a pregnant woman and animal cruelty, both third degree felonies.
Hernandez appeared in court before Judge Raquel West March 22 to ask that she remove his GPS anklet, due to it being uncomfortable to wear with his work boots. Hernandez’s counsel, Jared Gilthorpe, told West his client wasn’t a flight risk due to the substantial financial stake he has in the case, including a $100,000 bond and attorney fees. Gilthorpe further asserted that GPS monitors don’t prevent so-called flight risks from fleeing, anyway.
Noting such monitors’ purpose was to collect evidence in the event someone wearing it breaks certain bond conditions and that she wasn't concerned with comfort, West eventually granted the request.