BASTROP COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) A Bastrop County judge rendered a sentence for the concrete pump truck operator implicated in the fatal 2024 Hays Consolidated Independent School District school bus accident.
Jerry Hernandez, aged 44, faced charges for two counts of manslaughter and two counts of criminally negligent homicide. He pled guilty to manslaughter, a plea accepted by the court. Hernandez received an 18-year prison sentence.
The state previously dismissed the criminally negligent homicide charges.
The accident on March 22, 2024, which took place on State Highway 21, resulted in the fatalities of 5-year-old Ulises Rodriguez Montoya and 33-year-old Ryan Wallace, who was driving a car behind the bus.
“We don’t feel today justice was made,” commented Lilly Wallace, Ryan’s mother, during the sentencing. “He had just embarked on a career he worked diligently to build. You’ve shattered our lives beyond repair. He died alone on the asphalt. Your sentence should be far longer.”
A couple of dozen people attended the Bastrop County courtroom session on Thursday afternoon, many desiring to address Hernandez and express how the tragedy has affected their lives.
Addressing Hernandez, Ryan’s sister Diana remarked, “I want to be the one to tell you, you have single-handedly worsened this world. You will never fathom the depths of harm you have inflicted.”
“He had dreams and plans for the future. All of that was stolen by you,” Diana continued. “My brother was all that was good in the world.”
The bus was carrying 44 Tom Green Elementary pre-K students and 11 adults. A camera on the school bus captured the truck veering into its lane, causing it to roll over.
“I do hope that this feels like justice for the family,” Hays CISD Spokesperson Tim Savoy told KXAN in June. “But justice is one thing. On the other hand, there’s nothing that’s going to bring Ulysses back, and that’s going to be pain that the family has to endure forever.”
After the crash, Hernandez admitted to investigators that he had smoked marijuana and consumed cocaine within 24 hours of the crash, according to his arrest affidavit.
