As soon as Vickie heard the news, she visited Jerry in jail.
"Did you hit her?" she recalls asking.
Courtesy of Lufkin High School
Erica is all smiles in her sophomore yearbook photo.
Courtesy of Angelina County Jail
Jerry's mug shot, taken the day after Erica miscarried.
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Only on the arms, he said. Never in the stomach.
Vickie says she doesn't know what to think of Jerry and Erica's story.
"He was excited" about the babies, she says. As for Erica, "I never talked to her about her pregnancy, so I wouldn't know." Vickie works with Erica's mother at Pilgrim's Pride. She says they don't talk about what happened.
Lalo got the news later that day, when his little brother called him. Lalo couldn't believe what the police were saying.
"I don't think he's going to wake up in the middle of the night just to beat his girlfriend," Lalo says. What's worse, he says, the paper made him look like Lufkin's own Scott Peterson. The paper never said how much Erica nagged Jerry, how the pregnancy made her crazy.
But now, without a pregnancy complicating things, Erica and Jerry are able to continue their relationship. If he ever gets out, he says, he would want to be with her. It wouldn't be a problem, since his family doesn't blame Erica for anything.
He says Erica used to skip school to visit -- the jail is less than a quarter-mile from school -- but lately it's been harder for her to get away.
"I guess they caught on to her," he says.
Jerry calls home when he can. His dad works nights, so he usually winds up talking to his sister.
Neither wanted to be interviewed for this story.
Standing behind the fence in his front yard, chatting with friends who sat on the steps leading to the front door, Jose Flores, a stocky, smiling man in a ball cap, declined a request for an interview. After speaking in near-perfect English for several minutes, he said his English was too poor for an interview.
And while it's been a full year since his son's arrest, he said he wasn't familiar enough with the details of the case to comment. He said his daughter, Maira, knows more.
Then, the man who gave police the statement they needed to arrest his son apologized for not being much help.
On weekends, Jerry calls his older brother in nearby Hudson. About six months ago, Jerry became an uncle. Between the baby girl and the long hours at the foundry, Jerry's brother hasn't been able to visit often. For Jerry, that's been one of the worst things about jail. How can he be a good uncle in there?
"I can't even hold her," he says. "I can see her through the window."
Although court documents refer to them as Twin A and Twin B, the fetuses ultimately were named. Jerry says it happened shortly after Erica was brought to the hospital that night a year ago. He doesn't know who came up with the names, but he likes them.
They're buried at Carroway-Claybar Funeral Home in Lufkin. Last year, the Basoria and Flores families held a graveside service for the twins. The funeral home provided a temporary marker with the decedents' names: Eric and Gerardo Jr. -- named, of course, after their mom and dad.
