Jacqueline Medina drove 13 hours from Nevada to Texas and faced the murderer and suspect for the first time on February 6th.
Rafael Govere Romero, a 25-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico, broke into Jacqueline Medina's former Edna apartment on the morning of December 5, 2023, fatally reeling his 16-year-old daughter, Lizbeth Medina. He is accused of stabbing him. I was preparing for school at the time. He is said to have left her body in the bathtub.
“This is the first time I've seen him,” Medina told Fox News Digital after the hearing. “I wanted to sit right behind him. I wanted him to look at me. I wanted him to look at me. We stand strong and he's not going to win.”
Medina recalled her first eye contact with the suspect. She said he was taller than expected.
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Jacqueline Medina arrives at the house and finds her daughter, Lizbeth Liz Medina. Rafael Govea Romero, 24, was charged with capital murder in the death of Lisbeth. (Instagram)
“My daughter wasn't that tall,” she said. “So what could she do, thinking my daughter had to fight him?
“I made eye contact with him, and he just looked down and looked away. I saw his shame as if he understood the pain he had passed through us. His eyes.” Medina recalled. “At one point I felt like I couldn't sit there. I started shaking violently. I started hyperventilating. I couldn't breathe. I cried.
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Rafael Govea Romero, 25, was charged with capital murder after 16-year-old Lizbeth Medina died in December 2023. (Fox 26 Houston)
At a hearing Thursday in Jackson County, the judge ruled that Romero was capable of withstanding the trial and had set an interim trial date in August.
Medina said the decision felt like the weight had been lifted off the shoulder.
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The Edna Police Station has announced the arrest of Rafael Govere Romero, an “undocumented man” officials believe to be “the death of Lisbeth Medina” in Schlenburg. (Edna Police Station)
“We got information in November that there would be some kind of crazy plea,” she said. “It… broke me. I was beginning to lose hope in the system, and I began to doubt whether we were trying to get justice.”
However, after Thursday's hearing, she feels more confident that “thing is going in the right direction.”
“We have a great sense that the thoughts and all the love that has been shown of everyone who prays for us are a big part of keeping us strong as a family and as a community. .”
Jacqueline held a keychain featuring photos of her daughter throughout the lawsuit to give her “strength.”
Jacqueline had a keychain in her hands, with pictures of her daughter throughout the lawsuit, to give her “strength.” (Jacqueline Medina)
“Being there with me really helped,” she said.
Medina left the apartment for work on the beginning of December 5th, 2023. Lisbeth was a high school cheerleader who dreamed of studying nurses at the University of Texas at Arlington University, and usually left for school as soon as her mother went to work, but that day she did. Don't reach the school or Christmas parade where her cheering team was supposed to practice.
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Jacqueline had heard or seen no one from Lisbeth, so he went home that night and found her dead in the tub in their apartment. Edna police arrested Romero Schlenburg, Texasfive days after Lisbeth's death.
Jacqueline Medina arrives at the house and her daughter, Lisbeth Lis Medina, died in the tub of her Cottonwood apartment home that afternoon after not seeing or hearing it since the age of 16. (Facebook)
The murder suspect is reportedly on probation for a 2022 robbery in Schlenburg, about 60 miles from Edna. Edna police said Romero could also be tied up by a robbery at Lisbeth's home about a month before the murder.
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Neither Medina nor Lisbeth knew Romero, but Medina pointed out that their home was robbed on November 13, 2023, about a month before the teenager's murder. Police Officer Edna believes that Romero may have been involved in the robbery and may have stole Lisbeth before. He reportedly attacked her and killed her..
Lizbeth Medina was found dead in the bathtub of her apartment in Edna, Texas on December 5, 2023. (Jacqueline Medina)
Romero pleaded not guilty to the murder.
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Romero's defense team also filed a motion to suppress certain evidence late last year, claiming that Edna Police Station officials searched and detained Romero without a reasonable doubt, and disagreed with the suspect. Supporters reported that they searched his apartment.
The suspect's defense attorney, Ross Reifel, did not respond immediately to inquiries from Fox News Digital. Romero is held on a $2 million bond in Jackson County.
