Man who did not render aid gets four years in a plea deal
TEXARKANA, Texas — A man who drove away without stopping after striking two people standing on the side of a Bowie County roadway was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison as part of a plea bargain.
Glenn Hoke Garcia, 44, struck a man and woman who were standing on the shoulder of an Interstate 30 exit ramp road at mile marker 213 near Leary Road on July 24 while inspecting their commercial tractor. Both the man and woman suffered broken bones in their arms.
Garcia appeared Tuesday morning before 202nd District Judge John Tidwell and entered a plea of guilty to two counts of failure to stop and render aid at an accident involving serious bodily injury. As part of a plea agreement, Garcia received a 4-year prison sentence.
Garcia has been in jail since his arrest last year.
Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Aaron Jones responded to the scene the afternoon of July 24 where he collected evidence that allowed him to identify Garcia as the driver of the Toyota sedan that hit the man and woman, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The victims told a Texas trooper that the tractor was equipped with a dash camera. The trooper collected the camera footage and a piece of a side mirror that fell off the Toyota and landed under the tractor at the time the Toyota crossed the fog line and struck the people standing roadside.
The mirror piece had a part number on it which allowed Jones to identify the car as a Toyota Camry. The dash camera video provided Jones with a number from a dealer tag registered to Car Mart on the Toyota.
The trooper determined that Garcia had reported to Car Mart that the car had been involved in a collision on July 24 and was not driveable. Car Mart informed the trooper it had the car in question on its lot.
At Car Mart, the trooper examined the car, which was missing a side mirror, and was able to snap the missing mirror piece into place.
On July 30, an assistant manager at Car Mart contacted the trooper and told him Garcia was at her location attempting to take ownership of the Toyota. The trooper went to Car Mart and detained Garcia, who claimed the Toyota had become damaged in a collision on Summerhill Road in Texarkana, Texas.
Jones viewed photos of the damaged Toyota in Garcia’s phone. The photos were taken shortly after the hitand-run collision on the I-30 access road.