KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas — A Terrell man, in a plea agreement with the state, pled guilty to criminally negligent homicide and received five years deferred adjudication for a January 6, 2011, accident which killed a 7-year-old boy who was exiting a Kaufman Independent School District bus.
KAUFMAN COUNTY, Texas — A Terrell man, in a plea agreement with the state, pled guilty to criminally negligent homicide and received five years deferred adjudication for a January 6, 2011, accident which killed a 7-year-old boy who was exiting a Kaufman Independent School District bus.
50-year-old Salvador Hernandez of Terrell, Texas, then 47, struck and killed 7-year-old Nicholas Garza after he exited his school bus on State Highway (SH) 34 near Farm-to-Market (FM) 2728 approximately 3 miles north of Kaufman, Texas.
According to investigators at the time of the accident, the school bus’s flashing red warning lights and stop arm were deployed. Garza exited the bus, walked in front of the bus, and was attempting to cross the street just prior to the accident.
At the time of the accident, investigators did not believe alcohol or any other drugs played a role in the accident. Hernandez voluntarily gave a blood sample.
Hernandez stopped after the accident and was arrested for involuntary manslaughter and held on a $200,000 bond which he later posted and was released. Hernandez was indicted for manslaughter, a second-degree felony, by a Kaufman County grand jury on February 24, 2011.
This morning, Hernandez pled guilty in Kaufman County’s 422nd District Court before Judge B. Michael Chitty to one count of criminally negligent homicide, a third-degree felony, with the use of a vehicle as a deadly weapon and received five years deferred adjudication, was ordered to pay a $2,000 fine, court costs of $290, and 40 hours of community service.
Coincidentally, the case’s disposition comes a week after Kaufman County officials announced a school bus and school zone safety program to prevent and deter such instances and a week after National School Bus Safety week which is observed on the third week in October each year.
Kaufman County District Attorney’s Office Prosecutor Marc Moffitt said, “My heart goes out to all the people who were connected to this young man, his family, and friends. It’s a horrible, horrible tragedy.”
“It’s so case by case, all the factors come into play,” Moffitt said of the state’s decision and consideration of all the factors to offer a plea agreement. The school district, victim’s parents, and foster parents were all contacted prior to the state’s agreement being presented to Hernandez, according to Moffit.
In the last three years since the accident, the state and defense have met 15 times to discuss the factors of the case and a potential plea agreement in plea negotiation conferences and hearings.
Hernandez is also facing a civil lawsuit, which was filed in June 2012, from Garza’s family which lists the Kaufman ISD, foster parents, and foster program as co-defendants. The family is seeking over $1,000,000 for wrongful death and bystander damages due to loss of companionship and emotional trauma, among other things, suffered by the siblings of Nicholas Garza — one of which witnessed the accident and the other two later came upon the accident scene.
