Cayley Mandadi was 19 when she was murdered in 2017. Mark Howerton, a man that Cayley had been seeing for around a month has been convicted of aggravated assault causing bodily injury in relation to Cayley’s death.
As some background into Cayley, she was born Cayley Anita Mandadi was born on August 26, 1998 in Webster, Texas. She attended Clear Creek Independent School district schools and graduated in 2016 from Clear Creek High School in League City, Texas.
Cayley enjoyed participating in the film-making club at school and she also volunteered for an organisation called Faithful Friends Animal Assisted Therapy Ministry.
After she graduated high school, she attended Trinity University in San Antonio. She was on the cheerleading team there and was also part of the Chi Beta Epsilon sorority.
Cayley’s family say she had blossomed into a beautiful young woman, inside and out. They have also said that her life was joyful, full of love, beauty, compassion and intelligence.
Early in 2017, Cayley met Mark Howerton. She was dating another man, Jett Birchum and it seems like they broke up around August 2017. In early October, Cayley and Mark started dating.
Jett would later tell police that Cayley had told him about Mark’s violent tendencies. In September 2017, Mark allegedly trashed Cayley’s dorm room. She also told Jett that Mark had slammed her head into the passenger side window of his car.
Cayley’s sorority sister Dominique Hussain would tell police that Mark was initially really nice to Cayley. She confirmed though that he did trash her dorm room and that he also threatened to throw Cayley off a balcony. Dominique told police that she believed Mark used and dealt steroids because ‘roid rage’ was his excuse for trashing the room.
Dominique also told police that Cayley said she was really scared of Mark.
Another sorority sister, Ariana Conway, told police that she had seen bruises on Cayley’s legs. When Ariana asked Cayley what happened, Cayley told her that Mark had inflicted the bruises. Ariana also told police about the incident where Cayley’s head was slammed into the car window.
Ariana told police about another incident where Mark took Cayley’s phone. Ariana went with her to get it back and said that Mark was very aggressive. He took a gun out of the glove box, waved it around and threatened to shoot some of Jett’s friends.
Cayley’s roommate Morgan Sampson confirmed that Cayley’s room had been trashed by Mark during a ‘roid rage’ incident. She also told police that Mark had aggressively grabbed Kayley on her arm and had pushed her against a brick wall during an argument.
Morgan tried to Facetime Cayley on October 29, 2017. Mark answered the phone from inside a car and told Morgan that Cayley couldn’t talk and hung up on her.
On that day, Mark and Cayley were attending the Mala Luna Festival. The couple had been partying for two days at that point, according to Mark. He said they had both taken Molly. Mark has said that the couple got into an argument and they left the festival to discuss their disagreement in the car.
CBS says the argument they got into was about Cayley’s feelings for Jett, her ex. Mark said “I was pretty much saying … You need to get over this dude. He ain’t worth your time. … your friends are fake as — I was just telling her all this s*** … I was trying to get it through her head …
Mark’s version of events is that Cayley agreed to goto Houston with him that night. He said that she agreed to drop out of college to be with him and that she said he was her soul mate. Cayley had no belongings with her except for leggings, panties and shoes. Mark said that he told Cayley he was going to buy her everything she needed.
He then said they started to drive to Houston but stopped at a Valero gas station just outside San Antonio. He said that he and Cayley had ‘make up sex’ in his car. He told police that the sex was consensual but it was ‘rough’ and included hair pulling, light choking and scratching. He told police that Cayley already had some bruises on her neck at that time, I assume from former sex.
Mark said that Cayley said she did not feel well after sex and that she did not put her clothes back on. He said she passed out in the passenger seat and began to snore.
Mark said that he continued driving to Houston. Just before they got to Luling, Texas, he said he noticed that Cayley had stopped breathing. He said he attempted to give her CPR before taking her to hospital. ‘
Cayley arrived at Luling Hospital and was unresponsive. She was nude from the waist down, was covered in bruises and was bleeding from her vagina.
After Cayley was admitted, authorities called her mother and stepfather. Her stepfather Lawrence Baitland spoke of finding out about her injuries. “Your daughter’s been involved in some incident, and she has been life-flighted to Kyle, Texas.”
Mark was photographed after he got to the hospital and his knuckles appeared to be red. He also had scratches on his forearms.
Cayley’s friend Taylor Clement told CBS about how she realized something had happened to Cayley. They had been friends since ninth grade and had a Snapchat streak going.
“Every single day. … She was much more of a morning person. So I would get mine first thing in the morning. I didn’t get a Snapchat at 8 o’clock in the morning, like I usually do. … That’s actually how I knew something was really wrong. As I’m working in the library, it’s in the back of my head, like, I haven’t heard from her.”
On October 30, tests showed that Cayley had no brain activity and her brain damage appeared to be too extensive for her to recover from.
Her mother Alison spoke about seeing her in the hospital room. “I saw my daughter’s body smashed”
Lawrence said “ I could see that she was on a ventilator … and my heart just stopped. And I knew that it was bad.”
The following day, October 31, Cayley was taken off life support and was declared dead.
Cayley had previously requested that her organs be donated to help others. As she was taken to surgery for that procedure, her parents said goodbye.
Alison said “It was very emotional. … But, of course, we didn’t want to let her go. But this is what had to be.”
Police started looking into Cayley and Mark’s relationship. They spoke to Mark’s friend, Michael Goodwin who said that Mark was not the type to want a girlfriend. He also said that he had heard from several people that Mark was abusive towards Cayley.
Cayley’s parents have spoken about her feelings for Jett. “Cayley at the time was very much in love with the only serious boyfriend she had ever had. His name was Jett Birchum. What she told me was, “I don’t know that he wants a serious relationship.” And she did.”
Mark got an attorney, John Hunter. And he had some things to say about Cayle and Mark’s relationship. “I think that they’re both very beautiful people and I think that that was the primary attraction. I think that there were problems with her relationship with Jett. … And Mark was offering an alternative to that.”
An autopsy was conducted on Cayley on November 3, 2017. The Medical Examiner found bruising on her face, ear and mouth. Mark’s explanation for these injuries was rough sex but the Medical Examiner suggested it was due to blunt force.
Cayley’s labia was swollen and there were scratches and abrasions surrounding her vagina.
Cayley also had a hematoma on her brain. The Medical Examiner confirmed that her cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. There were multiple blunt force injuries to Cayley’s head, face and mouth. MDMA was also found in her system.
The only areas of her body without injury were her back and the back of her legs.
The manner of Cayley’s death was ruled homicide.
In December 2017, police interviewed Mark’s friend Wyatt Stevenson. Wyatt confirmed that he had purchased steroids from Mark.
Mark also contacted Wyatt at one point after Cayley died and said that he had researched what can cause a subdermal hematoma and suggested that Syphilis or extreme alcoholism could also be a cause.
Police also interviewed Mark’s friend Landon Suggs. Landon told them that he had bought steroids from Mark and that he knew Mark was selling to other people. Landon told police that Mark said he wanted to kill himself after he trashed Cayley’s dorm room. He also admitted that he was on steroids at the time that he trashed it.
Landon saw Cayley and Mark at the festival they were at and said they were both ‘drugged out’. Mark told Landon that he had lied to police and that he had actually choked and slapped Cayley during sex. Mark also told Landon that police had not taken his burner phone when they were at the hospital in Luling, Texas and that he had been able to hide it in a plant.
On February 26, 2018, Mark was arrested and charged with murder and aggravated sexual assault.
He was released on Thursday March 1 on $225k bail.
Cayley’s mother Alison thanked police at the time.
“The family of Cayley Mandadi thanks the Texas Rangers for their diligent work in bringing appropriate criminal charges against Cayley’s alleged killer. We thank Her Honor Beth Smith of Hays County Texas for her integrity and support during this unbelievably difficult process. We remain utterly devastated by the loss of Cayley. We ask people of faith to pray for her family, friends, and for justice in this case,” Alison wrote.
Mark went to trial for Cayley’s death in December 2019. He plead not guilty. Many thought it would be an open and shut case but it was anything but.
His attorney John Hunter, claimed there were mistakes made in the investigation and that the bruising she had was not from John but from hospital staff as they rendered life-saving measures such as CPR.
Jett Birchum, Cayley’s ex who we mentioned previously also took the stand. John’s attorney questioned Jett’s account of events that he claimed to see at the Mala Luna Festival.
Jett did confirm that what he initially told police was different than testimony he gave to a grand jury and the testimony he was currently giving.
The attorney also brought up Jett’s unrelated criminal record and when questioned about it he began to plead the fifth.
It seems like one of the turning points in this trial was the appearance of Dr. William Anderson, a forensic pathologist and former medical examiner.
Dr Anderson argued that a large amount of Cayley’s bruising was caused in part by resuscitation efforts at the hospital, and the organ donation process.
Jury deliberations began after more than a week of testimony. The jurors deliberated for more than two days and they still couldn’t agree on a verdict. The trial ended in a mistrial.
JUDGE RAYMOND ANGELINI (reading note): “After careful deliberation and discussion, unfortunately we cannot come to a unanimous decision.” Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I am declaring a mistrial.
Prosecutor Alexandra Crenshaw and David Lunan spoke about Dr Anderson’s testimony. “I was not prepared for Dr. Anderson to testify, uh — to what he testified to.
They’d been stunned by his claims that Cayley had a skull fracture, and her bruising was caused in part by the organ donation process.
Peter Van Sant from CBS asked: So, do you find that this notion that organ harvesting caused these bruises to be absurd?
David Lunan: Absurd. Absurd. In this instance, it’s absurd.
Before his second trial was to resume, the attorney filed a writ of habeas corpus, seeking to dismiss the indictment. In an August 2021 interview with the Express-News, the attorney accused assistant district attorneys trying the case of “prosecutorial overreach” when they seated a witness whom “they knew had lied in two police reports and in prior sworn testimony before a grand jury.”
John also stated in the writ that trying his client again would be double jeopardy.
A three-judge panel of the Fourth Court of Appeals in San Antonio denied the appeal on June 15, 2022.
Cayley’s parents decided to investigate further for themselves before the next trial. They set out to find out more information about what happened in the car that night.
Lawrence said “I spent hours and hours, um, studying autopsy photos, and I really fixated on one of the autopsy photos that showed an impact on Cayley’s head, you know, right in front of her ear.”
The photo of a small dot above Cayley’s right ear. Other photos show deep bruising above Cayley’s left ear, like the one described by the medical examiner in the first trial.
Alison said “We believe that of all of the injuries, the blows landed on her … the fatal one occurred when he reached from his driver’s seat, hit her in the left ear and drove her head into the window and onto the lock button of the car.”
Lawrence even went so far as to build a 3D model of Cayley’s head.
He said “The first thing you can do is you can create a solid out of that 3D mesh. And then … you can project an image onto it.”
Mark sold the car in 2018. Cayley’s parents tracked down the new owners and purchased the vehicle back.
Lawrence said “”I … reached out to some friends on social media who were … on an automotive forum and they were able to look up the VIN number of [the] car for me.”
At first, the new owner was hesitant to sell Lawrence the car, but after learning about Mandadi’s story, he agreed. Lawrence said driving the car home was “torturous” but necessary for their investigation. “We had to have the vehicle to show how she was assaulted.”
Alison and Lawrence commissioned a reenactment video of what they believe happened in the car. Using evidence photos, they focused on every little detail, including what Mark and Cayley were wearing and what items were in the back seat. They even hired actors similar in size and weight to them.
The second trial date was set for May 23, 2023. While waiting for trial, Mark was still making posts on social media like:
“Come @ me legally, I’ll beat you …” — showing little remorse.
Wow. 75% of people think I’m guilty. That just means 75% of people in the world…can suck my d***.
By this point, Mark had another attorney ( as well as John Hunter) named Hallie Pease. She spoke about his posts “He was using social media as an outlet for — to relieve some of that tension.”
When the trial was due to start, the judge allowed the video reenactment of the car to be shown in court. If this happened though, the parents would have been witnesses and that meant they would be unable to sit in the trial. They decided to withdraw the video.
During the first trial, jurors had only one charge to consider – felony murder. This time around, lawyers add more charges, including aggravated assault and criminally negligent homicide.
During this trial, the prosecution added on a witness who was an expert in domestic violence. This expert told the jury that Mark was a textbook abuser, who isolated and manipulated Cayley, and ultimately became enraged and lost control.
Dr William Anderson was due to appear again for the defense but the prosecution were ready this time.
Prosecutor Alessandra Crewnshaw said ”They realized that we were gonna be more than prepared to shoot down all those claims that he had made in the first trial”
John Hunter rebutted but saying “ I didn’t need to have a fight about the skull fracture”
The defense ended up resting without any testimony from Dr Anderson.
Lawrence spoke about that moment. “ It was a shock. … You could hear a gasp in the courtroom …”
When the jury returned to the courtroom, their first verdict was that Mark was not guilty of murder.
John Hunter: The two most beautiful words in the English language, not guilty.
Alison Steele: My heart sank when we heard not guilty on the murder.
Mark was convicted though of aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury.
David Lunan: Everyone was hugging each other and expressing their relief that Mark Howerton was going to prison.
Alison Steele: I turned to my left and eight sheriff officers had assembled to take him to jail. Eight. So, that was their way of saying, “we’re here for you.” (cries) So, that was a — that was a nice moment to see that.
Mark was sentenced to the maximum – 20 years in prison.
He will be eligible for parole in 2033.
SOURCE LIST
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/houstonchronicle/name/cayley-mandadi-obituary?id=11553773
https://people.com/crime/cayley-mandadi-texas-cheerleader-allegedly-raped-murdered-boyfriend/
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2023/05/19/open-court-the-retrial-of-mark-howerton/