An Ector County jury last week acquitted a 37-year-old Odessa man accused of kidnapping his former girlfriend at gunpoint.
On June 28, Maria Quinonez, 39, a single mom of three children, testified Julian Gomez kidnapped her shortly after she’d broken off their short-term relationship in the spring of 2020.
Quinonez said she decided to end the relationship after discovering Gomez smoking methamphetamine with the girlfriend of one of his friends. She told his friend about the incident and that set Gomez off, Quinonez said. He began sending her dozens and dozens of expletive-laced texts and voice messages telling her he was going to kill her for ruining his life.
Every time she blocked the call, Gomez would just call and text from a new number, she told Assistant Ector County Attorney Kortney Williams.
On June 3, 2020, Quinonez said she was driving to her south side home from a friend’s house on East 35th Street when Gomez suddenly appeared next to her car in his car, cut her off, pointed a gun at her and told her to pull over.
She obliged, because “I was afraid he was going to shoot,” she testified.
The woman testified Gomez dropped her off at her car hours later after she managed to convince him that she loved him and she would meet him later that day.
Defense attorney Luis Chavez and law school student Antonio Chavez told jurors prosecutors couldn’t prove Gomez had a gun that night or that he forced Quinonez to go with him. They suggested Quinonez went willingly with Gomez because she didn’t want to return home to her children, questioning why she didn’t call 911 when she had many opportunities.
