Laredo Man, 30, Accused of Choking Ex-Wife's Cries for Help on Video

A 30-year-old Laredo man is facing felony charges after police say he physically prevented his former wife from leaving a residence on the 800 block of George Drive and covered her mouth as she screamed for help. Jesus Orlando Gomez was booked into the Webb County Jail on July 14 on charges of continuous violence against the family and unlawful restraint, according to the Laredo Police Department.

According to Laredo Morning Times, officers responded to the George Drive address on May 11 after a reported family violence incident. Investigators later obtained warrants for Gomez in connection with that incident, and per an affidavit, he allegedly restrained his former wife by covering her mouth and nose, wrapping an arm around her neck, and pulling her back inside the home as she tried to leave. Per video footage reviewed by investigators, Gomez covered the woman's mouth after she yelled for help. An officer's documentation notes she sustained a cut to her bottom lip during the encounter.

The woman has since declined to cooperate further with the investigation or pursue charges, the outlet reports. That refusal has not stalled the case: Texas prosecutors routinely rely on what is known as evidence-based prosecution, using 911 recordings, police video, officer testimony, and physical injury records to move forward with domestic violence charges even when a victim signs an affidavit of non-prosecution or stops cooperating, according to Deandra Grant Law. Research published through Digital Commons at St. Mary's University indicates that an estimated 80% to 85% of intimate partner violence victims recant or decline to cooperate with prosecutors at some point during legal proceedings, a pattern often driven by trauma, financial dependency, or fear of retaliation.

A Second Arrest Tied to the Same Relationship

This was not the first time Gomez had been arrested in connection with the same woman. He was previously arrested on March 8 following a separate family violence incident involving her, with that arrest including charges of assault causing bodily injury involving a family member, interference with an emergency request for assistance, and unlawful restraint, per the report.

Gomez was released two days after his July booking after posting bonds totaling $50,000. The Webb County Sheriff's Office provided his mugshot to the newspaper. The article was reported by Jose de la Rosa for the Laredo Morning Times.

How Repeat Incidents Become a Felony

The continuous violence against the family charge stems from Texas Penal Code Section 25.11, which elevates repeat domestic bodily injury assaults into a third-degree felony carrying two to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 when a person commits two or more such assaults against a family member within a 12-month period, according to Deandra Grant Law. The statute is designed to treat patterns of abuse as a single ongoing offense rather than isolated misdemeanors.

The unlawful restraint charge, meanwhile, is typically a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in county jail and a $4,000 fine, but it becomes a third-degree felony if the defendant exposed the victim to a substantial risk of serious bodily injury, per Saputo Toufexis. Under a provision of Section 25.11(b), a jury in a continuous family violence trial does not need to unanimously agree on which specific predicate acts occurred — only that the defendant committed two or more qualifying assaults within 12 months, according to the Senate Research Center. Texas lawmakers also passed House Bill 1661, known as Rachel's Law, in 2019, allowing prosecutors to combine domestic violence acts committed across different counties within a 12-month span into a single felony charge, closing a loophole that let repeat offenders escape felony liability by crossing county lines.

Local Resources Amid a Statewide Pattern

Casa de Misericordia, Laredo's only domestic violence shelter, provided 6,460 total shelter days of emergency housing and support services to 264 adults and 341 children during its 2025 fiscal year, according to data compiled by Cause IQ. The shelter operates a 24-hour crisis hotline and serves victims across an 80-mile radius. In December 2023, federal officials announced $375,000 in U.S. Department of Justice grant funding for a joint initiative between the Webb County Sheriff's Office and the shelter to fund a dedicated domestic violence investigator and victim legal advocate, according to a Facebook post from the office of Congressman Henry Cuellar.

Statewide, the risks tied to repeat domestic violence remain severe. Annual reporting by the Texas Council on Family Violence found that 205 Texans were killed by intimate partners or stalkers in 2023, with female victims accounting for 179 of those homicides, and firearms involved in the vast majority of the fatal incidents.