BRITTANY MUNOZ - 16 yo (2009) - Flower Mound (N of DFW Metroplex) TX

A Fort Worth man killed his 16-year-old girlfriend because she was pregnant and he
didn't want his parents to find out, jurors were told Tuesday in a
Denton County capital murder trial.




Garrett Gower, 21, is accused of killing Brittany Munoz and her
unborn child last year in Flower Mound. Prosecutors are not seeking the
death penalty in the case.

In his opening statements, prosecutor Ryan Calvert described Gower as
an "angry boyfriend whose world was collapsing around him."

He said Gower was worried that he would be homeless if his mother found out
Munoz was pregnant. "He wanted her dead," he said.

But defense attorney J.R. Moore said the prosecution's case is built
on circumstantial evidence and emotion. He disputed the prosecutor's
characterization of his client, telling jurors that Gower and Munoz were
"peacefully asleep" together on the morning of the young woman's death.

But Rocio Davis, who lived in the same Flower Mound apartment complex
as the victim, testified that she heard the young couple arguing
continuously in the two weeks leading up to the homicide.

Judith Munoz, mother of the victim, said she talked to Gower about telling his parents about the pregnancy.

"He wasn't ready to tell his parents," she told the jury. "He was afraid [his mother] would kick him out of the house."

She said Gower was "around all the time" and was at her Flower Mound
apartment on the night before her daughter's death. The two were
sleeping in the living room when she went to work in the morning.

She said her daughter Crystal found her younger sister dead in her
bed around 4:15 p.m. and called 911. Broken glass littered the room, and
blood was caked on Brittany's hair.

It unclear how long she had been dead, but the teen's body was
already stiff by the time emergency crews arrived, according to testimony.

She was found on her back in bed with the covers pulled up around
her. Flower Mound police told jurors that it appeared the scene was staged.

"It was apparent to me she had been moved," said Sgt. Collin
Sullivan, adding that it was likely the suspect was cut by the broken
glass at the murder scene.

Gower had cuts on his forearm, hand and knee when he was arrested
three days later, a Flower Mound police detective testified.

While she suffered from bruising, abrasions and head trauma,
Brittany didn't die from a blow to the head, testified Dr. Marc Krouse,
deputy chief medical examiner for Tarrant County.
He said she died from suffocation and had injuries consistent with an object being placed on her face.

A Texas jury convicted Garrett Gower of Fort Worth of
capital murder in the November 2009 killing of his pregnant 16-year-old
girlfriend, Brittany Munoz. According to reports, the jury deliberated only 90 minutes.
A judge in Denton, about 50 miles northwest of Dallas, then sentenced 21-year-old
Garrett Gower to an automatic life prison term Wednesday. Prosecutors did not
seek the death penalty.
Investigators say Brittany Munoz was about six weeks pregnant
when she was slain. A medical examiner ruled that the cause of death was
suffocation. Prosecutors say Gower attacked Munoz when she had threatened to
tell his mother that she was expecting the couple's child.
On Nov. 10, 2009, police found Brittany's body in the apartment she
shared with her mother and sister.
Prosecutor Ryan Calvert described Gower,
now 21, as an "angry boyfriend whose world was collapsing around him"
in his opening statements.
Calvert said Gower was afraid his mother would kick him out of the house
if she found out about Brittany's pregnancy.
The arrest warrant affidavit for Gower says Munoz suffered blunt-force trauma to her head.
According to the document, she was found on her bed and shards of glass were
found under her body and around the bed. It also says her left eye was black and blue.