‘Twisted Love:’ The Cayley Mandadi tragedy

Cayley Mandadi appeared to have all of it — school cheerleader at Trinity Unversity, sorority member, sensible and common.

However, in September 2017, issues modified for Cayley when she broke up together with her boyfriend Jett Birchum.

The two have been in combination for approximately 9 months after they broke up.

Not lengthy after, Cayley began relationship Mark Howerton.

No fairy story

Mark was once now not a pupil at Trinity University however had a chum who went to the varsity and regularly frolicked with the similar crowds as Cayley.

As the 2 began to this point, her pals weren’t too keen on Mark and spotted some bizarre conduct.

Cayley began telling her closest pals that she wasn’t proud of Mark and sought after to get a divorce with him, however she was once afraid to.

Her pals spotted rigidity beginning to escalate between the 2.

In one example, Cayley went to a birthday celebration that Mark didn’t need her to visit and he trashed her dorm room and threw her garments out the window.

When Trinity University police were given a noise criticism, Mark was once discovered within on my own and he mentioned he was once looking ahead to Cayley to go back.

Due to the reality he wasn’t a pupil and police spotted the wear to the room, he was once advised to depart. Charges had been later filed and Mark wasn’t allowed on campus.

Cayley endured to look Mark and attempted to damage it off, however he would inform her he was once going to devote suicide if she left him.

As issues improved, they didn’t get any higher and Cayley began attaining out to her ex, Jeff. She advised him that she was once scared.

October 29, 2017

In the autumn, Cayley went with Mark to the Mala Luna Music Festival at Nelson Wolff Stadium.

The couple weren’t there lengthy, Cayley and Mark noticed her ex there and made up our minds to depart.

That was once round 3:45 p.m.

Cayley wasn’t observed once more till round 10:30 p.m. when Howerton confirmed up at a Luling sanatorium.

She was once subconscious, nude from the waist down, and coated in bruises.

CPR was once began in an instant however it was once too overdue, Cayley was once mind lifeless.

On October 31, she was once taken off lifestyles enhance and later died.

The investigation

Mark was once instantly puzzled on the sanatorium via police, the tale he advised didn’t upload up.

He advised police they left the pageant and had been going to force again to Houston as a result of she not sought after to visit faculty and sought after to break out from her family and friends.

He mentioned they argued about seeing her ex however in the end pulled over off I-10 at a Valero to have what Mark says was once tough make-up intercourse.

Mark additionally mentioned the 2 have been ingesting and had taken a considerable amount of the drug molly, or ecstasy.

After having intercourse, he mentioned they were given again at the freeway however then he spotted Cayley had handed out and stopped respiring.

He mentioned he panicked and took the go out for a sanatorium.

Police puzzled him and requested what Valero he was once relating to as a result of they didn’t know of 1 within the house off I-10.

The Texas Rangers would quickly become involved and lend a hand with the investigation.

Cayley’s post-mortem record later dominated she had died of blunt pressure trauma to the pinnacle and that her dying was once a murder.

Months after her dying, a warrant was once out for Mark’s arrest.

He was once charged with homicide and annoyed sexual attack.

The first trial

In December 2019, Mark stood in a Bexar County court and what was once published stunned many.

Prosecutors confirmed proof of a possessive and controlling Mark who may just simply lose his mood and take a look at to govern Cayley.

Meanwhile, the protection painted a distinct image. They said the bruising on Cayley can have been brought about via scientific workforce as CPR was once administered and that the drug she was once on can have contributed to her dying as neatly.

When Jett, her ex, took the stand, he were given stuck up in lies. His testimony didn’t fit earlier statements he made.

Jett testified that he noticed Mark pressure Cayley to depart the pageant via grabbing her forcefully via the arm however he later mentioned that he if truth be told didn’t see that and he simply noticed them stroll away.

His testimony was once harmful to the prosecutors.

In the top, throughout deliberations, the jury was once deadlocked 8 to 4, finishing in a mistrial.

The retrial

During the retrial in June 2023, mobile phone proof was once proven for Cayley and Mark’s telephones.

• 2:37 pm – Howerton’s telephone was once at Trinity University

• 3:42 pm – Howerton’s telephone was once close to the realm of Wolff Stadium the place the Mala Luna Festival was once going down

• 4:05 pm – Howerton’s telephone was once within the house off Highway 281 via the company Whataburger places of work throughout from the Quarry

• 4:23 pm – Mandadi’s telephone begins appearing up in the similar house off Highway 281

• 5:33 pm – Mandadi’s telephone remains to be appearing up on the company Whataburger places of work

• 7:14 pm – Mandadi’s telephone is now within the house off Loop 410 close to San Antonio International Airport

• 7:27 pm – Howerton’s telephone is now in the similar house close to the airport

• 10:39 pm – Howerton’s telephone is now within the house of Interstate 10 close to Luling

• These places would dispute Howerton’s first model of what came about after leaving the tune pageant. He had advised police the 2 stopped at a Valero off I-10 to have intercourse earlier than continuing to Houston.

• The mobile phone knowledge would additionally display that Howerton drove round for some time earlier than appearing up on the Luling sanatorium.

After testimony and proof had been offered, the jury went to planned.

This time round they might believe the lesser price of annoyed attack inflicting critical physically damage.

In the top, they might in finding Mark now not in charge of homicide, however in charge of that annoyed attack price, which is a second-degree legal.

He was once later sentenced via 144th Dist. Court Judge Michael Mery to the utmost for that price, which is twenty years in jail.

Prosecutor David Lunan mentioned Cayley’s circle of relatives was once relieved to in any case have some closure in her case.

“We’re happy, the family is satisfied that there is closure here. In having to meet with family members and friends and everything else who were affected by these crimes, and they’ve been hurting, and we are happy to conclude it today,” Lunan mentioned.

Howerton is now serving his time on the Garza West Unity in Beeville, Texas. His parole eligibility date is in May 2033.

Cayley’s Legacy

Cayley’s mom, Allison Steele created the Cayley’s Calling group and thru that had regulation handed developing the CLEAR Alert.

The evening Cayley died, a number of of her pals went in particular person to the native police division and begged for help to find her. However, with out an grownup alert mechanism to allow a speedy reaction, regulation enforcement businesses had been restricted in what they might do.

On May 25, 2019, Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill 1769.

According the Cayley’s Calling web site, “Texas has now become the first large-population state in America to enact an adult kidnapping interdiction mechanism as strong as what the CLEAR Alert represents, and to provide a rescue mechanism for adults whose lives are endangered in other situations as well.”

The acronym “CLEAR” stands for Coordinated Law Enforcement Adult Rescue. Informally, the letters replicate the primary letter of the names of sufferers of violence: Cayley Mandadi, D’Lisa Kelley, Erin Castro, Ashanti Billie, and the Rest (the opposite unnamed adults whose lives would possibly were stored if the CLEAR Alert had existed on the time in their deaths).

More Texas Crime Stories: