On October 22nd, Nestor Hernandez
walked into Methodist Hospital.
Dallas police say the
four time convicted felon was
on parole and wearing an ankle
monitor when he went into his
girlfriend's hospital room. She
had just given birth to his baby.
Police say he told her he was going to kill
her and whoever walked in through the door.
Police say he was pistol whipping his
girlfriend when hospital staff went to help.
We met up with her recently and
she spoke exclusively to us.
But asked we not show her
face or use her name,
we used surprised that he did what he did.
Yeah, a lot.
She would not talk about the shooting,
but did tell her she was horrified
when she says Ernandez shot
caseworker Jacqueline Paqua,
who had walked into the room.
You are about to see body camera footage
of that moment. It is disturbing.
What happened?
Police say he then shot nurse
Annette flowers. Both women
died at the hospital. Their deaths
outraged the community and
raised serious questions.
Lawmakers and police demanded to
know how a violent felon on an ankle
monitor walked into a hospital,
shot two people, and no one at the
hospital or DPD knew he was there.
And I've said it, I'll say it before.
Ankle monitors on violent
criminals don't work.
In 2015, Ernandez was sentenced to 8 years
in state prison for aggravated robbery.
He was released on an ankle monitor in
October 2021 after serving 85% of his.
Had he not been released early,
he would have completed his
sentence on January the 7th, 2023,
according to state officials.
When we started to look into
how these ankle monitors work,
we learned there are actually two
types used by the Texas Parole Board.
One of them is a radio frequency monitor,
also called a curfew monitor,
that only shows when a parolee
leaves the house and comes home.
In other words,
it's not a tracker. The second
type of monitor has GPS and
can track where parolees are.
Anandas's girlfriend told us
he did not have a GPS tracker.
He could only come up from
a thing from like 7 and
then we'll have to go back in like
I guess whenever they would tell
him but it wouldn't like actually
show them where you know he was at.
A report done by Texas Prison and
parole officials and released by
Governor Greg Abbott's office on the
investigation confirms he was on a
curfew monitor and the electronic
monitor notifies a parole officer
if he is not at his residence
during pre arranged time period.
The monitor does not track.
Movement. The report says Atlantis
had six ankle monitor violations.
Whenever he would violate it,
they would just call him.
And then he would have
just let them know, like,
I was outside smoking a cigarette.
They wouldn't go out there and
just like, actually check.
They were just like,
call him and like, hey,
why is the box speeding?
Statewide, there are 4207 parolees from
the Texas prison system on ankle monitors.
386 of those are paroled.
In Dallas County,
the majority are on GPS trackers.
We asked the company the state pays
to run its program several times how
many employees they have monitoring
parolees statewide and in Dallas.
We got no answers.
We also asked prison officials,
but they referred us back to the company.
We also looked into how the
state tracks those GPS devices.
We found that even when a parolee
has a full GPS tracker on their leg,
that does not guarantee the state
knows where they are or it's
paying attention to individual
tracking devices all the time.
Just days after the method of shooting,
Dallas police say this man's Eric
Jackson was arrested in connection
with the murder of Brian Dillard
in Lake Highlands outside his ex
girlfriend's apartment. State officials
confirmed he was on a GPS ankle monitor.
Under the most intensive supervision yet,
records show he violated his
monitoring 16 times by going to his
ex girlfriend's apartment when he did
not have permission to be there yet.
The state report found his parole
officer failed to check his GPS
coordinates on the Methodist Hospital
case on the day of the shooting.
There was a warrant for Hernandez's
arrest because his monitor
showed he had violated curfew.
State officials say the parole officer called
him and showed he went to the hospital.
For the birth of his child
and the warrant was withdrawn.
Ernandez was not arrested,
and because he was wearing a curfew monitor,
not a GPS tracker,
authorities had no idea where
he was until shots rang out on
the labor and delivery unit.
State Representative Rafael Anchia is
outraged by the lack of supervision and
accountability for people like Ernandez.
I mean, he did everything you could
possibly do to have parole revoked,
yet the board of Pardons and
Paroles kept him out, did not,
did not put him back in jail,
which they should have done.
Time and time again, Ernandez violated
his ankle monitor conditions.
Five months before the shooting,
Carrollton police arrested him
on a warrant for cutting off
his ankle monitor. He spent 100
days in jail and was released
right back into society. But he didn't
go to jail for breaking the law.
In Texas, it isn't a crime to
cut off your ankle monitor.
It's only an administrative violation.
In 2019, lawmakers tried and
failed to make cutting off a
monitor a crime this session.
Representative Anchia plans to
introduce his own bill to criminalize
cutting off the ankle monitor
and also immediately revoking a
person's parole when they cut it
off. The bill I'm working with PD on says
that if you cut off your ankle monitor,
you're immediately going to have
your parole revoked and you're
going to serve your full sentence.
No, no more of this stuff that, hey,
you cut it off and you stay on parole. Sorry.
Anchia, Dallas Democrat,
will have bipartisan support.
Governor Greg Abbott has called
for legislation as well as sent a
letter to the Lieutenant governor
and the Speaker of the House.
Texas cannot allow violent
offenders who jeopardize public
safety back into our communities.
Edmondes's girlfriend
agrees with them. By that.
Because, I mean, they should,
especially with a person like
that that has like a lot,
I mean his kind of charges,
they should really track them,
you know, like make sure like
they shouldn't really be.
Anywhere but being at home.