San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Distracted driver gets 5 years for deaths of 2
Relatives of a Robstown teen and her grandmother, both killed in a car crash in San Antonio in 2019, delivered tearful courtroom statements Friday, shortly after a judge handed a fiveyear prison term to the distracted driver who caused it.
Fermin Hernandez Jr., now 31, was arrested on May 29, 2020, on two counts of criminally negligent homicide and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the deaths of Tais Alejandra Hinojosa, 18, and her grandmother, Maria Carmen Hinojosa, 73, court records indicate.
“I am guilty,” Hernandez said when state District Judge Velia Meza asked whether he entered into his plea bargain willingly.
According to police reports, Tais Hinojosa was a passenger in the back seat of a Toyota Yaris that was stopped in bumper-tobumper traffic on Interstate 35 around 7 p.m. April 28, 2019.
Hernandez told authorities he was on his way home and was eating and drinking a beverage while at the wheel of his GMC Sierra pickup. His windows were open, and a lid to a plastic container began flying
around the cab. He told police he reached down to the floorboard to pick it up, shortly before he rearended the compact car.
Police said Hernandez was not under the influence, was not using his cellphone and stayed at the scene to render aid. He was taken into custody because he had outstanding warrants in San Antonio municipal court and a driver’s license violation, according to court records.
The teen, her grandmother and another passenger, Maria Ramos, Tais’ Hinojosa’s father’s girlfriend, were all hospitalized in critical condition.
Tais Hinojosa died from her injuries at University Hospital. Her grandmother died six days later at Brooke Army Medical Center.
“I’m the one that survived,” Ramos said in her victim impact statement. “I’m not sure why I’m here.”
Ramos and three other relatives appeared in court to give statements, breaking into tears over their sadness at the loss of their loved ones. They expressed a hope that while Hernandez was incarcerated, he could reflect on what his distraction did to them.
“So much has been taken from us,” Ramos said.
Friday’s hearing was delayed nearly three hours when Hernandez failed to show up. Meza issued a warrant for his arrest, and the county’s Fugitive Apprehension Unit tracked his GPS monitor and went to pick him up.
Hernandez was sentenced to five years in prison on each of the three charges, which will be served at the same time. Because the court decided his pickup was a deadly weapon, he will have to serve at least half of his sentence before he is eligible for parole.
Gretchen Flader prosecuted the case for the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office. Hernandez was represented by defense attorney Gary Churak.
Hernandez, a legal resident holding a “green card,” faces deportation upon his release from prison.