Woman gets 25 years for drunk driving crash that killed high school senior

MERCEDES, Texas (ValleyCentral) — A Pharr woman will spend a quarter of a century behind bars for killing a high school senior while fleeing from police and driving drunk.

Daena Nicole Gonzalez pleaded guilty to charges of murder, intoxication manslaughter with a vehicle, and evading arrest causing death in connection to a 2022 crash that killed 18-year-old Jaime Elias Garcia Jr.

Daena Nicole Gonzalez (Hidalgo County Jail)

On Wednesday, Gonzalez was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

On April 30, 2022, Gonzalez was pulled over by police in Progreso, where she showed signs of intoxication and was unable to perform a field sobriety test. Gonzalez fled the scene in her Ford Explorer before striking the back of a Kia Optima driven by Garcia, who was stopped at a red light near 18th Street in Weslaco.

According to police, the impact forced Garcia's vehicle forward into oncoming traffic, where it was struck by another vehicle.

Garcia died from his injuries at the scene, and several others were transported to a local hospital with minor injuries. Police say the speedometer on Gonzalez's vehicle was stuck at 90 miles per hour after the crash.

Gonzalez was charged with murder and arraigned at the hospital while receiving treatments for injuries she sustained in the crash.

"It is in fact a murder [investigation] because she fled from a person she knows to be a peace officer and caused the death of another person and that's what qualifies this to be murder," said Joel Rivera, Weslaco Police Chief at a news conference after the crash.

The teenager was set to graduate from Mercedes High School the month after the crash and had enlisted in the U.S. Navy.

“Anytime you would see him pass him in the hallway he would always present you with a smile on his face, so you know he will be greatly missed, but that smile is going to remain in our memories and our hearts forever,” said Michelle Guerra, Dean of Instruction at Mercedes High School.