Testimony continues today in Brown County’s 35th District court for 28-year-old Robert Conrad Zepeda of Brownwood.
Zepeda is charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, burglary of a habitation with intent to commit assault, unlawful restraint, and criminal mischief. He is also held on a parole violation warrant after an alleged assault on Amanda Moscorro on January 26, 2014.
Visiting Judge Dan Beck from La Grange is hearing the case. Zepeda is represented by Brownwood attorney John Lee Blagg.
After the reading of the indictment, Judge Beck asked Zepeda for his plea. Zepeda stood up, turned around to face his family, and was visibly emotional. He never answered the judge, who asked him a total of four times for his plea. Judge Beck finally verbally ordered a “not guilty” plea, saying that if the defendant doesn’t respond, the state must automatically assume it is a not guilty plea.
State’s attorney Sam Moss called Brownwood Police Corporal Aaron Taylor to the stand most of the morning as they showed graphic photographs of the crime scene and the severity of the victim’s injuries, as well as a heavy cordless drill, folding knife, and clothing iron that was allegedly used in the assault on Moscorro. Taylor described pictures of an air conditioner that had been pulled from a bedroom window, a toppled dresser, and blood spatter throughout the bedroom, living room, and bathroom. An audibly gasp came from the courtroom when Moss showed the beaten and bloody face of Amanda Moscorro. Zepeda either looked at the floor or straight ahead during the disturbing photographic evidence presented.
Taylor testified that police got into the house through the same open window they believe Zepeda used. Once the officers got inside the house, they searched and finally found Zepeda and Moscorro locked in a bathroom. The officers all had their guns drawn as Taylor ordered Zepeda to come out. Taylor testified that the door slowly opened and Moscorro stumbled out, barely conscious. She was immediately removed from the house and EMS transported her to the Brownwood Regional Hospital emergency room where she was found to have a brain bleed, broken orbital bone near the left eye, multiple lacerations, cuts, and broken teeth.
Zepeda remains in the Brown County Jail under a $200,000 bond.
