Woman receives 15 years in DUI death
Describing almost three years of “sorrow that never passes,” the family of Dr. Naji Kayruz, killed Feb. 4, 2019, on his bicycle by a drunken hitand-run driver, confronted the woman Tuesday in a courtroom as she was sentenced to 15 years in prison for intoxication manslaughter.
In their formal victim statements, the surgeon’s wife, son and twin brother stood before Melissa Nicole Peoples, 49, to dismiss her recent apology on TV for the death, praise a lifetime of good works by Kayruz and describe what the son, Anthony, called their “1,044 days of suffering.”
“This was not an accident. This was a crime,” said Dr. Sandra Vasquez-kayruz, the victim’s wife. “The impact was heard over 200 yards away. … (A witness) saw my husband’s body fly up as high as one of the power lines and land 40 feet away. (She) ran to his side. He was barely breathing … but his body was so mangled nothing could be done.”
“How dare you, Melissa, not stop immediately and see who you killed?” said Vasquez-kayruz, flanked by her son and brother-in-law. “Last week you issued a public apology on camera to my family, but that apology came three years too late.”
Vasquez-kayruz also said that during a related civil suit against Peoples, “even when we were alone together once in a legal office,” that Peoples never made an effort to apologize.
A petite woman with long bangs and a black COVID-19 mask, Peoples stood at the defense table some 20 feet from the family as they spoke for nearly 40 minutes. Her lawyer, Demetrio Duarte, placed
his right hand on her shoulder throughout the often wrenching statements.
Peoples did not speak in court.
“I can tell you she was trembling and crying during the family’s testimony,” Duarte said. “She cried when the son said he could call his dad at three in the morning and he would never complain. … Your heart goes out to them.”
State District Judge Velia Meza sentenced Peoples to 15 years in prison. She had pleaded guilty to intoxication manslaughter and no contest to failure to stop and render aid.
Prosecutors had agreed to remove the “aggravated” element of the manslaughter charge — an accusation that People’s vehicle was used as a deadly weapon — so she will be eligible for parole after less than four years in prison. Prosecutors and defense attorneys agree, however, that a prisoner’s first attempts at parole for a violent crime are unlikely to succeed.
According to notarized prosecution documents not introduced as evidence but undisputed by Peoples’ attorney, her blood was drawn by a nurse shortly after her arrest, which tested at more than .20 percent for alcohol content. The legal limit in Texas is .08.
Kayruz was killed when Peoples’ white BMW X3 hit him from behind as he rode his bicycle near the Dominion neighborhood on the Northwest Side. The family was disheartened by the plea deal and said they wished they could have confronted Peoples long before Tuesday’s court session.
“This is the first time the community and the judge really get to hear our voices,” said Karyuz’s son Anthony, 26, a third-year law student at Stanford University, after the proceeding. “Every time before we have merely been bystanders in the courtroom.
“People need to know you don’t ever get over this. You only get better at enduring the pain.”
“The debilitating pain is no longer there,” said Kayruz’s brother Walid, 61, a research scientist for the federal government. “But there is no closure. You just get better at hiding it.”
David Prichard, the Kayruz family’s lawyer, said earlier this month the DA’S plea agreement was “a sham and a disgrace,” and that the district attorney’s office should have gone to trial with the case.
A spokeswoman for Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales said it was standard practice for the office to not comment on a pending case.