Driver in deadly crash on I-35 downtown faces murder charge

A 19-year-old driver involved in a one-car crash that killed his female passenger has been arrested on a murder charge, Bexar County records show.

James Chancellor, 19, had a probation violation for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle at the time of the fatal crash. His bail was set at $150,000, and a prehearing has been set for Jan. 10.

Chancellor was driving a black Ford Mustang on Interstate 35 South downtown a little before 3 a.m. Thursday when a traffic deputy attempted to pull him over because he was impeding traffic while traveling about 40 mph, Sheriff Javier Salazar said.

The officer initially thought Chancellor was complying, but the teenager passed an exit near Martin and began to drive away.

While the deputy used his vehicle’s loudspeaker to demand that the driver pull over, Chancellor accelerated to over 100 mph, Salazar said.

Although the officer abandoned his pursuit as the Mustang got farther ahead, he observed the car attempting to take the exit for South Frio. But the car was traveling too fast to negotiate the exit ramp’s sharp curve, and the Mustang went over the guardrail, dropped 20 feet to the road below and hit a retaining wall, Salazar said.

Authorities suspect that the car was moving at more than 100 mph when it hit the retaining wall.

The vehicle’s female passenger, 33, was killed on impact, while Chancellor sustained critical injuries.

The sheriff ’s office has not released the woman’s identity but disclosed that she was not from the area.

When officers searched Chancellor’s car, they found a handgun and multiple checkbooks that were not in either of the occupants’ names.

Salazar said he was unsure whether the sheriff’s office will charge Chancellor with being a felon in possession of a handgun and that authorities had not determined whether the gun or checkbooks were stolen.

“Many times in these cases, we will recover a gun and come to find out later that it was stolen, but the owner didn’t have the serial number readily available to enter it officially as stolen,” the sheriff said.