Mark Phillips Howerton 1.png
Mark Phillip Howerton, [photo], was arrested and charged Wednesday with murder, aggravated sexual assault and criminal mischief in the death of cheerleader Cayley Mandadi

Questions still surrounding the Halloween day death of Trinity University sophomore, Cayley Mandadi appeared to have been partially answered Wednesday when her steroid addled boyfriendĀ Mark Phillip Howerton, 22, was charged with murder, aggravated sexual assault and criminal mischief.
Mandadi a 19-year old cheerleader at Trinity University in San Antonio, died Halloween day, 2017. The following day, Trinity sent out an alert to all students and faculty to be on the lookout for her travelling companion, Mark Howerton, who campus authorities said said was not a student at the university and was declared persona non-grata on campus property.
On the last day of February Mark Howerton turned himself in for the death of the 19-year-old Trinity cheerleader, and was taken into custody.
Cayley Mandadi, died on Halloween last year, after falling unconscious in a car while traveling to Houston. An arrest warrant affidavit for Howerton, her boyfriend of four weeks at the time of her death, has shed new light on the hours leading up to Mandadi’s death.
Howerton according to his attorney John Hunter, ‘is ready and eager to vindicate himself in court. He’s innocent of the charges, and he’s doing the right thing,’ Hunter said.
‘If someone has a warrant out for his arrest, then he needs to turn himself in.’

Cayley Mandadi 3.pngCayley Mandadi [photo], a 19-year-old sophomore at was aĀ  Trinity University in San Antonio died on Halloween 2017 after falling unconscious in a car while traveling to Houston in the company of Mark Howerton

Howerton and Mandadi had been dating for only four weeks at the time, but she told him he was her soul mate and she was going to drop out of college to be with him, the suspect told Investigators.
TheĀ  19-year-old Texas cheerleader was raped and murdered by her boyfriend, who in the one month they were dating flew into at least one steroid-induced rage, and threatened to throw her off the balcony of her college dorm room.
Howerton’s story of what happened that night didn’t match up with Mandadi’s injuries, which were consistent with sexual trauma, an arrest warrant affidavit said.
Howerton told investigators he and he had been partying that weekend with his new flame. The couple had spent the weekend partying, drinking alcohol and taking ecstasy at the Mala Luna music festival.
The pair began arguing on the second day of the festival, over Mandadi’s ex-boyfriend before deciding to drive to Houston on October 29.
When the couple started their drive to Houston, they stopped at a Valero gas station just outside San Antonio to have sex in the car. – By Howerton’s account, the sex included hair pulling, light choking and scratching.
Mandadi reportedly said she wasn’t feeling well soon afterwards and began sleeping in the front seat without her clothes on.
He drove on to Houston Howerton said, and asĀ he entered Luling, he noticed his girlfriend wasn’t breathing, so he started performing CPR before driving to a nearby hospital.
A medical exam showed her injuries were not consistent with Howerton’s description of what happened, according to the affidavit.

Cayley Mandadi 2.pngTrinity University cheerleaderĀ  Cayley Mandadi [photo], allegedly did not feel well on the trip and decided to lay down in the front seat. Howerton the man accused in her death, claims he noticed she wasn’t breathing and took her to the hospital  Mark Howerton APB 1.jpg
After a medical exam showed the victim’s injuries were not consistent with the account of her travelling companion, an arrest warrant was issued for Howerton.

Mandadi was covered ‘from head to toe’ with red marks, bruises and scratches, according to the affidavit and both of her eyelids were swollen and bruised.
‘The only areas of [Mandadi] with no evidence of injury were her back and the back of her legs,’ the affidavit says.
Such injuries did not line up with Howerton’s claim of ‘rough sex,’ notes the arrest affidavit, but instead line up with ‘physical and violent sexual assault’.
Mandadi was pronounced brain dead on October 30 and taken off life support the next day.
The cause of death for the communication major was determined to be blunt force trauma to the head.

Cayley Mandadi 1.png19-year-old Cayley Mandadi [photo], was pronounced brain dead on October 30 and taken off life support the next day and the cause of death was determined to be blunt force trauma to the head
Ā Cayley Mandadi [left] 4.png
Roid rage: The victim’s sorority sister told officials that the suspect had once destroyed the Mandadi’s [seen left], dorm room at Trinity University and threatened to throw her off the balcony. An assault he later blamed on ‘roid rage’.

Records have also shown that Howerton had a history of violence prior to this arrest.
During the investigation, Texas Rangers spoke with multiple sorority sisters of Mandadi, as well as her ex-boyfriend and her roommate. All of them said Mandadi had told them Howerton had previously physically abused her and threatened her.
Mandadi’s sorority sister told officials that Howerton had once destroyed the cheerleader’s dormitory room and threatened to throw her off the balcony, adding thatĀ  she believed Howerton used steroids because he used ‘roid rage’ as his excuse for destroying the dorm room.
Mandadi’s family released a statement on Wednesday afternoon thanking the Texas Rangers and Beth Smith, a Hays County justice of the peace.
‘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,’ they said.