A jury split exactly six to six, forcing a judge to declare a mistrial in the case against former La Feria High School coach Jaime Carlos Guerra, who is charged in connection with the 2021 death of Robin Hernandez. The deadlock came after a case that had already been delayed eleven times since it was first filed.
According to KRGV, the mistrial was declared Monday after jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict. A Cameron County District Attorney's Office statement said the charges remain in place, telling the station, “The charges remain and we look forward for a retrial.” As of the report, no new trial date had been set, and Guerra remained out on bond.
Court documents reviewed by ValleyCentral state that Guerra struck Robin Lee Hernandez in La Feria at 3 a.m. on October 30, 2021, and did not stop to render aid. The outlet reports that Guerra, 59, was indicted in December 2021 on charges of accident involving death and tampering with evidence.
A Case Marked by Repeated Delays
The station's report notes that jurors deadlocked and could not reach a verdict, leading the judge to declare the mistrial, the latest turn in a case that has dragged on for years. Per the same outlet, the trial had been delayed eleven times, a figure cited in reporting and attributed to Guerra's defense attorney.
Those delays stretch back to the case's earliest stages. A report from myRGV indicated that a trial date had originally been scheduled for February 22, not long after Guerra's indictment. The case would go on to be reset repeatedly in the years that followed, including a reset to October 19 that KRGV's earlier coverage marked as the eleventh delay, with the outlet noting at the time that the victim's family was still waiting for justice.
Conflicting Accounts Over Attorney Eligibility
That earlier KRGV report also surfaced a dispute over one of the reasons cited for the delays. A Cameron County District Attorney's Office spokesperson said the trial was reset because Guerra's attorney was found to be “ineligible to practice law.” The same report, however, said records showed Guerra's attorney was in fact eligible to practice law in Texas, leaving the discrepancy unresolved in that coverage.
With the mistrial now declared, the case returns to a familiar holding pattern for the family of Robin Hernandez, who has waited five years for a resolution. The Cameron County District Attorney's Office has indicated it intends to pursue a retrial, though no court date had been announced as of the latest report.
