A Keren, Texas, man accused of killing three women on South Padre Island Aug. 7, 2021, reportedly did it in self-defense, according to state court proceedings in the 357th state District Court Thursday.
Yordi Barthelemy, 25, is accused of killing Sandra Nopales, Zulema Nopales Hernandez, and Odalys Hernandez by shooting the woman inside a condo at the Sunchase Condominiums at 1004 Padre Island.
According to Barthelemy’s defense team, he killed the women because they went to his room, where one of the women said she was going to kill him, and then all the women began to assault him.
Barthelemy is expected to testify in his own defense during his capital murder trial that is expected to begin sometime next year. The trial was scheduled to begin Monday; however, it was revealed that Barthelemy’s defense team has not been able to find a neurologist to testify on his behalf.
During Thursday’s court proceedings it was also revealed that Barthelemy suffered some type of skull injury at the age of eight and it was in the specific area of his head that one of the women started to strike him with a cellphone, according to his defense team.
Barthelemy reportedly suffered some type of seizure during the alleged attack, fell to the ground and the attack by the three women continued, according to the court proceeding.
“It is assumed that all three women punched and kicked him keeping their focus with hitting him on the head and one of them in the course of that said she was gonna kill him…he had suffered several blows to the head particularly to the area of his previous injury,” said Ed Stapleton III, one of Barthelemy’s defense attorneys.
However, the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office said the state’s evidence will reveal that none of the women struck Barthelemy.
The self-defense motive was raised as Stapleton sought to get experts to testify on Barthelemy’s behalf. He presented Michael Sanchez, and Dr. Marguerite DeWitt, both faculty members at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, during a Daubert hearing.
A Daubert hearing permits the parties to examine the challenged expert in open court to develop his or her testimony for purposes of evaluating its admissibility, according to law officials. The defense wanted Sanchez to be qualified as an expert witness on self-defense and stippling, and DeWitt to be qualified as an expert witness on brain injuries.
Judge Juan A. Magallanes ruled that Sanchez could testify on his expertise pertaining to stippling patterns of the gun used and DeWitt will only be able to testify on her expertise of forensic pathology.
“She is not an expert,” in traumatic brain injury, Magallanes said.
Sanchez is a criminal justice instructor and firearms expert. DeWitt, is a criminal justice lector and once served as a forensic pathologist at Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen.
South Padre Island police were dispatched to the area in reference to a disturbance with either a gun or knife, a SPI police report states.
When SPI police arrived at the scene, they found the women dead. At least one of the women had been shot in the head. The handgun was fired anywhere from two to 8 inches away from each of the victims. Four different bullets were fired from the same gun.
Napoles and Odalys Hernandez were from Katy, Texas. Hernandez-Napoles was from Kerens. The women are believed to be from the same family, police said.
Police said Barthelemy fled the scene but was later found in Port Isabel. Police say he notified them of his location while attempting to turn himself in.
Barthelemy remains jailed at a Cameron County facility on a no bond.
The state is seeking the death penalty in the case.
