Bar employees charged in crash that killed young Houston mother
Five employees at a South Houston bar have been charged with serving alcohol to an underage patron who authorities said then drove the wrong way and crashed into an SUV, killing a 23year-old mother and injuring her child and mother.
The employees at Servi-Car el 3 on Houston Boulevard are all accused of serving 19-year-old Erick Hernandez at least a dozen alcoholic drinks over six hours Sunday night.
On Sunday night, based on seized surveillance video, a visibly intoxicated Hernandez left the bar at 10:49 p.m., according to the Harris County District Attorney’s office. At 10:51 p.m., authorities said his pickup swerved across three lanes of College Avenue and crashed into a car driven by Taylor Phillips who died at the scene.
“This family should be celebrating the holiday, but is instead planning a funeral,” said Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg in a statement. “This tragedy should never have happened.”
In the case, Mildred Garcia, 21, Anna Evelyn Lule, 19, Jaquin Guadalupe Gonzalez, 19, and Jazely Marie Barrera, 21, are charged with misdemeanors associated with serving Hernandez. Gustavo Tejada-Garcia, 28, the manager of the bar, is charged with misdemeanor possession of an unauthorized beverage charge, namely tequila.
Hernandez is accused of being drunk when he crashed head-on into an SUV driven near Hobby Airport. Phillips died on impact, prosecutors said in court. Her 1year-old son and 48-year-old mother were injured in the crash.
Prosecutors with the Harris County District Attorney’s office said none of the bar employees who served Hernandez ever asked for his ID.
Hernandez was charged with second-degree felony intoxication manslaughter in Phillips’ death. He was released on a $30,000 bond Tuesday night, court records show.
On Wednesday, a judge ordered that Hernandez cannot drive as a condition of his bond while the charge is pending. He was also issued a 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew and will be required to wear an alcohol-detecting ankle monitor.
Hernandez, as well as his attorney, David Garza, declined to comment.
Based on video, Hernandez had spent six hours drinking inside the Frontera Events Venue in the 1000 block of Houston Boulevard, ultimately downing a dozen alcoholic beverages — including at least three tequila
shots, according to Sean Teare, chief of the Vehicular Crimes Division at the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.
Servi-Car el 3 is a part of Frontera Events Venue, authorities said.
Hernandez was drinking with another person inside the bar, Teare said.
“This is a 19-year-old kid at a bar,” Teare told reporters Wednesday morning. “The bar is like any other bar. They had live music. They were dancing. They were there for six hours, and they never stopped drinking during the six hours.”
Surveillance video indicates that Sunday not was not the first time Hernandez had been in the bar, Teare said.
He eventually left the bar that night and hopped in his Ford F-150. Less than a minute later, Phillips was dead.
Firefighters had to free Hernandez from his truck after the crash, Teare said in court.
Hernandez was given a test to determine his blood-alcohol concentration and Teare expects it to be “pretty high” based on the amount of drinks surveillance video shows him drinking before the crash.
As for the bar, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission is investigating the circumstances leading up to the crash.
If convicted, Hernandez is facing up to 20 years in prison.
The Houston metro area is the deadliest in the nation for fatal crashes related to alcohol and drugs, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis of federal data.
The dubious distinction has drawn the attention of prosecutors. Ogg, since taking office in 2017, has worked with the Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission on education campaigns aimed at establishments that sell or serve alcohol, and focused on prosecutions of people who sell alcohol to minors who later are suspected of causing deadly crashes.
Charges have followed some of the region’s most high-profile fatalities involving alcohol and underage drivers. In April, Clear Lake bartender Amy Allen, 40, was charged with two counts of selling liquor to a minor, both misdemeanors, following a Feb. 28 crash.
Gumaro Munoz Campos, 29, was charged Aug. 6 with a liquor violation following a horrific crash in Atascocita that killed Salma Gomez and Chloe Robison, both 16. Campos, via his lawyer, denied in court selling Jaggar Clayton Smith, 17, the liquor purchased prior to the July 25 wreck that split Smith’s car in two when he slammed into a tree in the median of Timber Forest Drive.
Still, courts and prosecutors have been mixed on imposing penalties. Allen received deferred adjudication in September, meaning she will spend no time behind bars and the charges could disappear if she avoids other crimes. The bar owner's son, Devin Jackson, 24, and another man, John C. Medina, 23, pleaded guilty to one count of furnishing alcohol to a minor and both also received deferred adjudication.