Carrie Herrera, the widow of Lincoln Police Investigator Mario Herrera, shares an embrace after a jury in Platte County District Court found Felipe Vazquez guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Mario Herrera.
JUSTIN WAN, Journal Star
Lancaster County District Judge Andrew Jacobsen reviews the verdicts handed down against Felipe Vazquez on Monday.
COLUMBUS — Felipe Vazquez, the teenager who fired the shot that killed Lincoln Police Officer Mario Herrera in August 2020, will go to prison for first-degree murder.
A jury in Platte County District Court, where this month's trial was moved, returned the verdict just before 8:30 p.m. Monday.
Twelve hours earlier, in closing arguments, the jury of five men and seven women heard Herrera's voice, captured on an audio recorder in the investigator's pocket, the moment he was wounded.
First came a smash, the sound of glass breaking from a bedroom window.
A shot followed. Boom. Then, immediately, Herrera's pained screams.
His family and Lincoln police officers in plain clothes had filled the courtroom Monday morning, at least one wiping away tears at the dramatic audio that showed how quickly everything went tragically wrong.
Many were back in the Columbus courtroom Monday night, awaiting the jury's response to the question of premeditated first-degree murder or manslaughter, as attorneys for Vazquez had suggested throughout the two-week trial.
Vazquez showed no emotion as the seven guilty verdicts were read, including assault, escape and firearm charges that could net a sentence of life plus 240 years at a hearing scheduled for May 25.
Following the verdicts, Herrera's family watched as deputies put handcuffs on Vazquez and led him out of the courtroom. Herrera's widow, Carrie Herrera, tearfully hugged Lancaster County Attorney Pat Condon and other supporters, including current and former LPD officers.
Family members declined comment outside the courtroom and attorneys offered no statements.Â
The verdicts followed 19 months after officers first went to Vazquez's father's house at 3255 Vine St., looking to serve a warrant.
In the seconds leading up to the audio clip played Monday, Condon said Mario Herrera and two other officers were behind a tree in the yard talking. A captain said he didn't think Vazquez — the teen who locked himself in a bedroom when they came to arrest him — had a gun inside.
"What does he do? He does what he's been trained to do," Condon said of Herrera, who stepped out from behind the tree when he heard the crashing noise of Vazquez's escape attempt. "He's also drawing Mr. Vazquez's fire."
He said in the 20 to 25 minutes holed up in the house, Vazquez had time to think this whole thing out, showing premeditation necessary for first-degree murder.
"He's not trying to scare the officers. He's trying to kill the officers that are trying to stop him from leaving," Condon said.
Vazquez's first shot was the one that tore through Herrera's liver. Then there was a pause and a second boom from the stolen .45-caliber handgun.
In closing arguments, defense attorney Nancy Peterson said Vazquez didn't intend to shoot Herrera or anyone.
"All he wanted to do was to get away," she said.
She said if he had planned to have a shootout with police, why would he leave an extra magazine for the gun behind? And why didn't he shoot at an officer blocking off Vine Street a block away?
In an interview with a Lancaster County Sheriff's deputy later that day, after Vazquez was chased out of a house nearby and found hiding on a porch, he denied he'd had a gun or fired it.
"I just got out the window. I heard gunshots and I kept running. I don't know, bro," the then-17-year-old said.
But last week on the stand, Vazquez said he remembered firing the gun twice — police found three .45 casings. He said the plan was to aim at the tree to cause officers to take cover, allowing him and his friend, Orion Ross, to get away.
On Monday, Peterson asked the jury to find Vazquez guilty of manslaughter for Herrera's killing.Â
Peterson also asked jurors to find Vazquez not guilty of attempted assault on Officer Cole Jennings, who ended up with bruising on his legs.
Prosecutors believe Vazquez shot at Jennings' feet, causing debris to hit him, before Jennings returned fire, shooting four times but missing Vazquez as he ran away.
Peterson argued against that claim and against trusting testimony from two convicted felons who stood to benefit by, one, saying Vazquez had previously said he would shoot police if they came to arrest him and, by another, saying he'd said "it was me or the officer."
"Your verdict doesn't rest on maybes and possiblys and could've-beens," she said.
Condon countered that Vazquez wasn't shooting in the air or at a van or a tree.
"Felipe Vazquez was shooting at the officer who was going to stop him," he said. "That was his intention. To not get caught and to shoot ... whichever police officer he needed to."
The jury in Platte County, where the case was moved because of pretrial publicity, entered deliberations at 11:49 a.m.
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Carrie Herrera, the widow of Lincoln Police Investigator Mario Herrera, shares an embrace after a jury in Platte County District Court found Felipe Vazquez guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Mario Herrera.
Felipe Vazquez showed little emotion in March as a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting of Lincoln Police Officer Mario Herrera.
Co-workers and supporters of slain Lincoln Police Officer Mario Herrera filled a courtroom in Columbus for closing arguments in the trial of Felipe Vazquez.
Lancaster County Attorney Pat Condon holds up a gun from the evidence pile during closing arguments of Felipe Vazquez's murder trial in Platte County District Court on Monday.