SAN ANTONIO — Defense attorneys for Mark Howerton rested Thursday afternoon after calling in expert witnesses in an attempt to show that Howerton is not responsible for the death of Trinity University cheerleader Cayley Mandadi.
On October 29, 2017, Howerton and Mandadi left the Mala Luna music festival in San Antonio and had sex in a gas station parking lot. Mandadi fell asleep and started snoring, but when the snoring stopped, Howerton told police he checked her pulse and couldn’t find one. He took her to a hospital in Luling. Days later, she was declared brain dead.
Howerton told police he was physical with Mandadi during sex. Investigators said Mandadi’s injuries were consistent with sexual assault and her cause of death was reported as blunt force trauma.
Howerton told police the two smoked weed and took MDMA at the festival. An expert witness on pharmacology and toxicology was recalled to the stand in the latest trial.
Jason Wallach, assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences at St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia testified for defense attorney John Hunter.
Wallach reviewed the facts of the case and told the jury Mandadi’s blood levels were consistent with ingesting repeated amounts of MDMA over time, possibly one to two days. Wallach attempted to link brain bleeding she experienced to high blood pressure that could have been caused by Mandadi’s drug use.
Wallach said he is not a medical doctor, and he did not perform an autopsy on Mandadi.
The state attorney’s rebuttal witness, Bexar County’s Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kimberley Molina, came in and testified about Mandadi’s cause of death. She says she reviewed the autopsy report, photographs, previous trial testimony, and medical records from two hospitals where Mandadi was kept. She herself did not perform the autopsy.
Dr. Kimberley Molina told the jury that Mandadi’s cause of death was blunt force trauma. She said in her experience, its more common for someone to die with MDMA in their system, but not directly from MDMA.
Investigators have previously testified that Mandadi had injuries consistent with sexual assault. Both the state and the defense rested, with closing arguments to begin Friday at 9:00 am.
In December 2019, the case was dismissed due to a hung jury.