Indictments returned in murder of 3-year old

The Police News / Jamie Nash
November 28, 2009

CONROE, Texas - A Montgomery County grand jury has indicted an East Montgomery County man on a capital murder in connection with the death of his girlfriend’s 3-year-old nephew. Two members of the boy’s family face lesser charges.

Noah Herrera, 20, of 16625 Edgefield Lane near Grangerland is accused of killing David Lee Tijerina on August 31. In addition to the capital murder charge, Herrera was also indicted on the charge of injury to a child.

Crystal Tijerina, 27, Herrera’s girlfriend and David Tijerina’s aunt and primary caretaker was indicated on the charge of injury to a child, as was 46-year-old Cristina Tijerina, the boy’s grandmother. Both women, Herrera, and the deceased lived in the same house.

David’s mother, Daisy Isabell Tijerina died January 30, 2008.

Around 6:40 p.m. on a Monday afternoon, medics were dispatched to the Edgefield Lane residence after a neighbor called 911 when members of the boy’s household knocked on her door asking for help.

The neighbor, who asked her identity be withheld, ran to the home and began CPR on the boy. She later described him as “lying there…lifeless,” when she arrived.

Medics transported the 3-year-old to St. Luke’s Hospital in The Woodlands with CPR in progress, where he was pronounced dead at 7:30 p.m.

Pct. 3 Justice of the Peace Edie Connelly ordered an autopsy, which was performed the following day by Dr. Patricia Moore at the Southeast Texas Forensic Center in Conroe. The judge said the autopsy revealed the cause of death as “blunt abdominal trauma,” and revealed multiple other injuries.

Lt. Dan Norris of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said 10 people lived in the home, including four adults and six children, including the dead boy. The five surviving children, ages 2 to 10, were removed by Child Protective Services, Norris said.

With David Tijerina’s mother dead and his aunt and grandmother in jail, there was no one to claim his body. Judge Connelly’s office coordinated with Cashner’s Funeral Home and members of the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office who made personal contributions to give the dead child a proper burial on Sept. 10 at Cashner’s Garden Park Cemetery in Conroe.

Herrera’s prior charges include assault causing bodily injury. Police records show no arrests related to crimes against children for any of the three suspects.