Merrimack Valley

DA: Suspect took photos of girlfriend's murder

By Julie Manganis
Staff writer
Published: June 10, 2008

PEABODY — He led police to his victim's body, then allegedly confessed to strangling her. And Ashley Fernandes has provided one more piece of evidence in the case, said a prosecutor: He photographed Jessica Herrera before, during and after he strangled her to death.

The photos were discovered on a digital camera police found inside Fernandes' apartment on Oak Street soon after the April 5 murder, prosecutor Kate MacDougall said during his arraignment yesterday in Salem Superior Court.

Fernandes, despite his alleged confession, pleaded not guilty to the murder charge, as well as charges of attempted murder and assault and battery stemming from a similar attack on Herrera, a mother of two, on Christmas Eve.

He will remain held without bail at Bridgewater State Hospital, where he was sent by officials of Middleton Jail. A jail spokesman would not say why, citing federal health privacy laws.

Herrera's mother, Paula Gonzales, and stepfather, Dennis Gonzales, were seated in the courtroom as Fernandes was led in by a court officer. As he walked toward them, he nodded and appeared to say hello.

MacDougall described the events that led up to Herrera's slaying — including the Dec. 24 incident that left the victim with a blood-filled eye and "extensive visible injuries."

Fernandes and the victim were alone together on Christmas Eve and had dinner and drinks. But sometime during the night, Herrera, 25, awoke to a violent assault at the hands of Fernandes, who punched and strangled her and told her she was going to die, the prosecutor said. She did not die that night but was too frightened to report the attack for days, fearing not only Fernandes but the potential loss of her kids to the Department of Social Services.

Finally, on Jan. 4, she asked Peabody police how she could get a restraining order against Fernandes, MacDougall said. When Detective Sgt. Sheila McDaid saw her injuries — still visible and serious after more than a week — she told Herrera she had to file charges.

Prosecutors tried to have Fernandes held without bail, but a Peabody District Court judge denied the request after hearing from Herrera and Fernandes. He did grant a restraining order.

Herrera moved back home with her mother and stepfather in Harwich, but weeks later was back in Peabody, where, on Valentine's Day, she dropped the restraining order against Fernandes, saying she no longer feared him.

At some point on April 5, the two were alone together when, prosecutors say, Fernandes attacked again.

But this time, he would document the crime in a chilling series of photographs of Herrera, including one with his hand on her throat, MacDougall told Judge Howard Whitehead, and photos of her after she was dead.

Her body was found the following day, after police were led there by a bizarre conversation between Fernandes and another patron at a Beverly Indian restaurant. Fernandes told the other diner that he would soon be famous, because his girlfriend's body was in his apartment.

When police went to the apartment with Fernandes, whom they had stopped for driving without a license, they found Herrera's body, bound multiple times and wrapped in a blanket, in a back room.

When police asked him what was in the blanket, he claimed not to know. Then he started crying.

MacDougall said that under questioning by police, Fernandes confessed to the killing.

Defense lawyer Lawrence McGuire did not contest MacDougall's request that Fernandes be held without bail but did say he does not believe prosecutors will be able to proceed on the attempted murder and assault charges because the victim is not available to testify, violating his client's Sixth Amendment right to confront his accuser.

MacDougall said prosecutors will seek to use the victim's testimony at January's dangerousness hearing and will also invoke a rarely used legal doctrine called "forfeiture by wrongdoing." A number of courts have held that a defendant waives his right to confront his accuser if it can be proven that he was responsible for making that accuser unavailable.

Outside court, Paula and Dennis Gonzales declined to comment on the case but did say they were on their way to visit their grandchildren, Herrera's two young sons, Antonio and Amani, who live with Herrera's former husband, yesterday afternoon. Paula Gonzales wore a T-shirt with a photo of her daughter and one of the boys printed on the front.

Fernandes is due back in court on June 30.