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'A Devastating Situation:' Former Police Sergeant Admits Killing His Librarian Wife
Hilario Hernandez pleaded guilty to the shooting death of his wife Belinda Hernandez and has been sentenced to 40 years in prison.
A former Texas police sergeant has admitted to killing his librarian wife.
Hilario Hernandez was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Friday after taking a plea deal for his wife Belinda Hernandez’s 2019 murder, local outlet KTRK reports.
The couple’s adult daughter Christina Foos discovered her mother after she was shot dead in the kitchen of the couple's Pearland home, KTRK reported in 2019. Hilario Hernandez was a sergeant with the Houston Police Department at the time of the shooting. He was arrested later that day at a motel 250 miles away.
Foos and her husband, Alex Foos, were with the couple at a dinner party along with a family friend the previous night, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by the Houston Chronicle in 2019. Alex Foos told investigators that Hilario became irate over "perceived flirting with (the family friend)," according to the affidavit.
Christina Foos faced her father in court on Friday, KTRK reports.
"It's definitely been a long two years," she told the outlet. "A devastating situation for my brother and myself. Essentially, that day, we lost both our parents. Mainly, what I made the focus about was her and her legacy. I made that known in the speech [in the courtroom] that it is no longer about him and it's completely about her."
She said she misses her “simply irreplaceable” mother everyday.
Two libraries at Pearland Independent School District campuses now honor the slain librarian. They are filled with free books dedicated to the mother. Belinda worked at one of the libraries and taught reading at the other.
"She had a passion for education," Sonia Serrano, who hired Belinda more than two decades ago, told KTRK. "She was a life-long learner. She loved books. She loved providing instructions to students no matter what her role was. She took every opportunity available to teach kids life lessons.”
Belinda was featured in the Houston Chronicle in 2014 for fulfilling her dream of becoming a teacher.
"I was very happily married,” she told the outlet. “But I always had my one regret. I wished I had gone to college and become a teacher."
Hilario has been given credit for the 826 days he already served after he pleaded guilty to murder.
