SAN ANTONIO – Last spring, Daniel Hernandez shot and killed his wife, Jody, and called it an assisted suicide. He said she suffered from chronic depression and Crohn's disease, among other things, and she asked that he kill her.
“It was an act of love and of compassion,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez was arrested on murder charges, but after reviewing the case and speaking with family members of both Hernandez and his wife, District Attorney Nicholas “Nico” La Hood dropped the murder charge.
Hernandez was charged with assisting suicide and as part of a plea bargain, was sentenced to five years’ probation.
“The message is don’t think this is going to happen in every case,” La Hood said. “We looked at the facts, the citizen accused, we looked at everything.”
“This is case specific,” La Hood said. “There’s not a one-size-fits-all and I don’t paint with a broad brush. If somebody thinks they’re going to use this as a cover to do something terrible to their wife, they made a poor choice in thinking that.”