Man denies buying drinks in fatal crash
He’s accused of role in 2 deaths by serving an underage driver
A Houston man denies buying drinks for a 20-year-old woman who allegedly caused a drunken driving crash that killed two people in Clear Lake in February, his attorney said Wednesday.
Defense attorney Wilvin Carter also said 24-year-old Devin Jackson, whose stepfather owns a Clear Lake bar, did not know the woman was underage.
“He is innocent,” Carter said, after Jackson appeared in a Harris County courtroom for a hearing. “My client did not know that those young ladies were underage and he did not personally provide, furnish or purchase any alcohol for those young ladies on the night in question.”
The declaration is the first time any of three people charged with contributing to the deaths by allegedly over-serving alcohol at his stepfather’s Bay Area bar has spoken out about the night Clear Lake resident Shayla Joseph, 36, and her infant son, Braylan, were killed Feb. 28. Prosecutors have charged Veronica Rivas, 20, with intoxication manslaughter, accusing her of driving drunk and causing the fatal crash. If convicted, Rivas could face up to 40 years in prison.
Arrests, bar details
In a crackdown announced after the fatal wreck by Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, three other people were arrested for allegedly helping provide alcohol to the underage woman hours before she got behind the wheel.
Amy L. Allen, a bartender at the Crescent City Connection Sports & Oyster Bar near Clear Lake, was charged with criminal negligence, accused of failing to check identifications for Rivas of and a 17-year-old friend, prosecutors said.
They also charged Jackson, the bar owner’s stepson, and his friend, 23-year-old John C. Medina, with knowingly purchasing and providing alcohol to a minor, a class C misdemeanor, prosecutors said. Medina is also charged with the felony of lying to a grand jury. If convicted, Jackson faces a $500 fine. He is free on $5,000 bail.
Investigators said Rivas and her teenage friend were served several margaritas at the Crescent City Connection before Rivas’ car slammed into Joseph’s Toyota Scion about 3:50 a.m. at the Gulf Freeway feeder road near El Dorado. Rivas was driving about 90 mph, investigators said.
On Wednesday, Carter said Jackson and his friend had met Rivas and her friend at another bar weeks earlier. It was after midnight and the two girls were drinking, leading Jackson and Medina to believe they were over 21.
Carter said Jackson’s friend invited Rivas and the teen to the Crescent City Connection the evening of the wreck and they stayed at the bar for about an hour and a half. They left, saying they were going to a party.
The two women returned to the bar hours later, Carter said, and were visibly intoxicated, so Jackson and his friend made them leave.
“These young ladies went to a different party or went to a different bar,” Carter said, adding that they returned to the bar after 11 p.m. “At that time, Mr. Jackson realized they were intoxicated, he declined to have any more interaction with them that night and unfortunately those two ladies left and were involved in that tragic accident.”
DA cracking down
The charges against Jackson and Medina are the first of the kind from a new task force created to tackle drunken driving and roadway fatalities, Ogg said. She has vowed to pursue charges against other bars that serve underage people or otherwise enable drunken driving.
“We’ve always gone after the driver,” Ogg said during the announcement. “But we think communities want more. This is extraordinary and (the defendants) are going to face serious criminal penalty.”
Sean Teare, head of the Vehicular Crimes Division of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, said he hoped to make an example out of two men.
“I hope this causes people to be more responsible, because if you’re not, we will hold you responsible,” he said. “The people of Harris County are tired of this. I am tired of this, of standing over babies and dead people on the road.”
Texas led the nation with 3,776 drunken-driving related fatalities in 2016, and Houston led the state with 89 fatal DUI crashes, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.