Murder Trial Begins in San Antonio for Tyler Man

SAN ANTONIO — The trial of a man accused of killing a Trinity College cheerleader started Wednesday. Investigators say Mark Howerton killed Cayley Mandadi, 19. According to our news partner KETK, it happened as they traveled between San Antonio and Houston in October 2017. Body camera and dash camera footage, shows what Howerton told investigators the night he dropped her off at a hospital in Luling.

Howerton said that night the couple got into an argument at a music festival in San Antonio. They left the event and started driving toward Houston and at some point Howerton noticed she stopped breathing. “So I looked at her like, ‘Cayley, Cayley,’ and I reached over and felt her throat and I didn’t feel anything,” said Howerton, in an interview with a Guadalupe County deputy. “That’s when I started freaking out.”

Howerton drove to a hospital in Luling. Sharyl Lane, a paramedic who was on duty that night, testified that when she saw Mandadi for the first time, the 19-year old was almost naked and bleeding from below her waist. “He’s hollering and screaming telling me that his girlfriend is not breathing and he needs help,” said Lane. Howerton told investigators both he and Mandadi had been taking MDMA that day, a psychoactive drug more commonly known as ecstasy or molly.

“And her toxicology screening reflected a very high high dose of MDMA in her blood,” said John Hunter, Howerton’s defense attorney. Investigators determined Mandadi died from head injuries as a result of blunt force trauma. A Bexar County grand jury indicted Howerton on charges of murder, aggravated sexual assault and criminal mischief back in April 2018.