Prosecutor: Texas man shot and beheaded roommate

FORT WORTH, Texas – A prosecutor says a North Texas man shot and killed then beheaded his roommate and fatally shot the roommate’s 17-year-old girlfriend as she tried to flee.

Hector Acosta-Ojeda is charged with capital murder in the September 2017 killings of Erick Zelaya and Iris Chirinos. His trial began Tuesday in Fort Worth.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that Tarrant County prosecutor Kevin Rousseau said Acosta-Ojeda shot Zelaya twice in the head while he slept. Zelaya’s severed head was later found on a trail near AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

Rousseau told the jury that Acosta-Ojeda said he killed Zelaya because he recently confessed to shooting at Acosta-Ojeda’s former home in Arlington months earlier. A day after the shooting, that house burned down.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the 30-year-old Acosta-Ojeda.

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Information from: Fort Worth Star-Telegram, http://www.star-telegram.com