Driver who killed 8 people in a collision with an SUV in front of a migrant shelter sentenced to 60 years in prison

BROWNSVILLE, Texas – A Texas jury on Friday found a driver guilty of intoxication manslaughter in the deaths of eight people when an SUV was struck when it plowed into a crowded bus stop outside a migrant shelter on the U.S.-Mexico border.

George Alvarez, 35, was found guilty of eight counts of manslaughter while intoxicated at the end of a week-long trial. He was also found guilty of 10 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and sentenced by a judge to 60 years in prison.

“You’re never really satisfied with the outcome you get, because eight people are still dead and ten have had their lives changed forever. But I’m satisfied with the way things turned out,” said Luis Sáenz, Cameron County District Attorney.

The jury handed down the verdict more than a year after authorities said Alvarez lost control of his vehicle after running a red light. The fatal incident occurred in Brownsville, which has long been an epicenter of migration.

Brownsville Police Chief Felix Sauceda said at the time of the crash that the SUV ran a red light, lost control, flipped onto its side and struck 18 people. Six people died at the scene and 12 were seriously injured. The victims were all male and several of them were from Venezuela.

After the verdict, Alvarez apologized to the victims’ families. “I am sorry from the bottom of my heart,” he said.

A shelter operator said the victims struck by the vehicle were waiting for a bus to take them back to downtown Brownsville after spending the night at the shelter. Authorities said Alvarez tried to flee but was detained by several people at the scene of the accident.

Alvarez admitted to being addicted to cocaine since he was 11 years old, after his parents left him to be raised by his grandparents. Cameron County District Attorney Art Teniente said he believes the accident was unintentional, but Alvarez’s drug addiction played a role in the fatal crash.

Defense attorneys argued that Alvarez’s test results found only a trace of the drug, but that he was not drunk the day his vehicle struck the crowd at the bus stop. He asked the jury to consider Alvarez’s six children and impose a suspended sentence or the minimum two-year sentence for each count of intoxication manslaughter.

Ashley Flores, 33, was one of the jurors and said the decision was neither easy nor quick.

“We really tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, but unfortunately based on the evidence we assumed he was intoxicated at the time,” Flores said.

Maria Rodriguez Sangroni lost her 18-year-old son Cristian Jesus in the accident. She said that after the accident, the only thing she received from the police was her son’s rosary. She felt that the 60-year prison sentence was fair and that justice had been done.

Sangroni did not accept Alvarez’s apology to the families.

“He will have to experience God’s justice. No one is safe from that, no one. This is a mild punishment for what awaits him with God. He will have to give an account to God,” said Sangroni.