A Texas mother was found guilty after her 14-year-old son hit and killed a cyclist while driving under the influence on an errand she assigned him.
Erika Martinez-Ramirez was found guilty of harming a child on Tuesday, April 7, and sentenced to the maximum of two years in prison by Judge Vikram Deivanayagam, according to a press release issued by the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office on Wednesday, April 8.
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Prosecutors said they chose to charge Martinez-Ramirez with endangering a child because it is easier to prove in court than criminally negligent murder and has the same sentence range.
On July 14, 2024, a deadly occurrence took place in Bellmead, Texas.
Martinez-Ramirez dispatched her 14-year-old son to pick up clothes from a nearby house around 1:30 a.m. that day, when he hit and killed a bicyclist before colliding with a house. The 14-year-old was not recognized since he is a minor.
The district attorney’s office did not provide the victim’s name or age. According to KWTX, police identified the victim as Dennis Welch, 67.
“Police determined that the underage driver was intoxicated,” the district attorney said. “Additionally, the teen’s 10-year-old sister was in the car during the crash and sustained minor injuries.”
During the Bellmead Police Department’s inquiry, officers discovered that the 14-year-old had been stopped twice before for driving his mother’s automobile.
The first incident occurred on December 12, 2023, when the 14-year-old was speeding with “multiple other children in the car.” Martinez-Ramirez received a ticket following this incident.
The second offense occurred two weeks later, on December 24, 2023, when the boy hit another automobile and fled the scene.
“Police contacted Martinez-Ramirez and repeated to her that allowing her son to drive was unacceptable,” according to the district attorney’s office. It is unclear whether she received a citation for the second infraction.
People contacted the Bellmead Police Department but did not receive an instant answer.
Investigators were unable to charge Martinez-Ramirez with manslaughter in the July 2024 incident because there was no evidence she knew her son was under the influence when she let him drive, according to the district attorney’s office.
Texas law prohibits state officials from disclosing the punishment of juveniles.
“Parents are rarely prosecuted for crimes committed by their children, but this mother’s actions were so irresponsible and so frequent that both prosecution and a maximum sentence were warranted,” assistant district attorneys Michaelina Yearty and Duncan Widmann said in a joint statement. “We are grateful for Bellmead Police Department’s exceptional work on this case.”
