Driver sentenced in fatal DWI crash
Woman to serve 18 years after killing mother, infant son
Bryan Joseph has been sleeping on an air mattress in the guest room, where there are few reminders of his deceased wife and 3-month-old son.
The other rooms in his house carry too many memories for the grieving father, his best friend said during sentencing Friday in a Harris County courtroom of the woman who drove drunk and killed the mother and infant in February 2018.
Veronica Rivas, now 22, cried as Joseph and his friend delivered victim impact statements in the deaths of Shayla Joseph, 36, and baby Braylan.
“Veronica, what did you think was going to happen after you altered your brain with chemicals?” Bryan Joseph asked. “You gambled with others’ (lives) and lost.”
The Bacliff woman pleaded guilty last month to two counts of intoxication manslaughter and was sentenced by state District Judge George Powell on Friday to dual 18-year sentences in prison, to be served concurrently.
Rivas’ attorney, Adam Muldrow, did not return a call requesting comment on the outcome of the case. Rivas sat quietly in a gray hooded sweatshirt before being taken into custody. Some of her family looked on from the benches.
Tears permeated the courtroom when Joseph and friend Noah Hennigan spoke. While they each testified, the other stood nearby, holding up a purple blanket with images of the newborn Braylan and the smiling couple.
Hennigan described how his friend has a difficult time entering his child’s bedroom, as well as the kitchen and the room where he and his wife slept in their Clear Lake area home. He called the guest room — the only place Joseph feels he can go — a “jail cell.”
“You went to bed with a family and woke up to nothing,” Henningan said, describing Joseph’s pain.
Joseph spoke with confidence at the sentencing hearing, declaring a personal mission to push for stiffer sentences for DWI deaths.
Sean Teare, head of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office vehicular crimes division, agreed that the maximum punishment for intoxication man
slaughter — 20 years — is too low.
“This kind of crime deserves a higher punishment range every time,” he said after the hearing. “Your actions have consequences — no matter what your intentions were.”
Joseph added he thinks Rivas knew what she was doing when she got into her car Feb. 28, 2018.
Rivas, who was 20 at the time of the crash, was driving with a 17-yearold friend on that night. She had several margaritas at the Crescent City Connection Sports & Oyster Bar in the Clear Lake area, prosecutors said.
Around 3:50 a.m., Rivas’ car slammed into Shayla Joseph’s Toyota Scion at 90 mph. The mother and son died at the scene, on the Gulf Freeway feeder road near El Dorado, authorities said.
Tests showed the underage woman’s blood alcohol level measured at .21, which is almost three times the legal limit of .08 for an adult. There is no legal limit for a person under the age of 21.
After being charged, Rivas was released on $60,000 bond. She has since had a baby, said Teare.
The deaths of Shayla and Braylan spurred an investigation to locate the source of the alcohol. Three people who worked at Crescent City Connection were later charged in connection to the case for allegedly selling liquor or purchasing and providing alcohol to a minor. They all pleaded guilty and were granted deferred adjudication, meaning their charges could be dismissed if they successfully complete a probationary period.