Sandy MalonePearland, TX – A 33-year veteran of the Houston Police Department allegedly murdered his wife late on Friday night and was arrested on Saturday.
The couple’s daughter, Christina Foos, told Pearland police that she and her husband had attended a dinner party at her parents’ house in the 1900-block of Canyon Creek Court on March 22, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Her husband, Alex Foos, said that his father-in-law, 56-year-old Houston Police Sergeant Hilario Hernandez, had been upset with his wife because of “perceived flirting” with a family friend who had been in attendance, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Christina Foos said she texted her mother, Belinda Hernandez, at about 11:30 p.m. that night to let her know they had arrived home safely, but her mother didn’t reply, according to the Houston Chronicle.
So she called her mother’s cell phone and her father answered and informed his daughter that her mother was “fine” and then hung up the phone, the affidavit said.
When 52-year-old Belinda Hernandez still didn’t answer her phone the next morning, Christina and Alex Foos went over to check on her at about noon, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Christina Foos came out of the house screaming and told her husband that “her father had shot her mother” and to call 911, according to the affidavit.
Responding officers found a black handgun on the kitchen counter with spent shell casings scattered around the kitchen and near the back door of the home, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Belinda Hernandez was found face down on her kitchen floor and pronounced dead at the scene.
The neighbor across the street told police that he heard gunshots around midnight as he was walking his dog, the Houston Chronicle reported.
He said he saw Sgt. Hernandez leave the house afterward in his pickup truck.
Officers located Sgt. Hernandez in Kingsville, about 100 miles north of the Mexican border, by pinging his cell phone, KTRK reported.
According to the probable cause affidavit, a lieutenant with the Houston Police Department said Sgt. Hernandez had texted her and said “he would kill himself, or turn himself in to her,” the Houston Chronicle reported.
Sgt. Hernandez was taken into custody in Kingsville and transported to the Brazoria County jail where he is facing murder charges.
His bail was set at $800,000, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Sgt. Hernandez worked for the Burglary and Theft Division of Houston PD, KTRK reported.
Because that department requires officers to purchase their own duty weapons, the gun used to kill the sergeant’s wife did not belong to the police department.
Police said that if Sgt. Hernandez is convicted of the first-degree murder of his wife, he will forfeit his department pension, according to KTRK.
Joe Gamaldi, of the Houston Police Officers’ Union, said that union would not be assisting in Sgt. Hernandez’s defense because the incident occurred outside the scope of his work for the police department, KTRK reported.
“If these allegations are true, this man is a disgrace to the badge and a disgrace to the oath that he took,” Gamaldi said.
KTRK reported that the Houston PD was conducting an investigation to determine Sgt. Hernandez’s status
The Pearland Independent School District confirmed that Belinda Hernandez was the librarian at Shadycrest Elementary, the Houston Chronicle reported.
She and Sgt. Hernandez had two children together, and Belinda Hernandez returned to college to become a teacher in 2011 after the children had grown up.
The librarian was featured in a 2014 Houston Chronicle story about fulfilling her dream of becoming a teacher.
“I was very happily married; I loved my children,” Belinda Hernandez said at the time. “But I always had my one regret. I wished I had gone to college and become a teacher.”
Investigators were looking for surveillance video that may have captured any part of the incident, WLKY reported.
“We are going to conduct business as usual,” Pearland Police Spokesman Jason Wells said. “The law is held accountable for everybody, actually more so for [officers].”