Traveler dead after pursuit; teen driver jailed

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Smuggling attempt ends in tragedy at Cotulla Loop

A 17-year-old San Antonio native and his alleged accomplice have been taken into custody on a rake of felony charges after they led law enforcement officers on a two-county pursuit that ended in the death of a passenger.
The La Salle County Sheriff’s Office is reporting this week that deputies were dispatched to a two-lane road east of Cotulla during the early-morning hours of Saturday, April 9, to intercept a vehicle whose driver had evaded arrest in Dimmit County.
La Salle Deputies Rolando Flores and Joe Pargas picked up the pursuit from the Dimmit County Sheriff’s Office at 6:30 a.m. Saturday on FM 468 as the suspect’s vehicle, a Dodge Caravan minivan, sped east towards the IH-35 intersection. Troopers of the Texas Highway Patrol also joined in the effort.
The sheriff’s office has confirmed that the suspect was traveling at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour on the farm-to-market road and on IH-35.
Attempts to bring the vehicle to a halt were in vain until the driver steered out of the IH-35 northbound lanes at the Joel Rodriguez Cotulla Loop, less than a mile north of the city, and the Dodge passed between the bridge columns for the elevated roadway and plowed over uneven ground towards the Union Pacific railroad line.
“The minivan rode up onto an earth berm at the edge of the railroad tracks and slowed,” La Salle Sheriff’s Investigator Homar Olivarez said of the pursuit and crash. “When that happened, several individuals jumped out of the van and tried to flee on foot, but the vehicle was still running.”
Emergency responders and law enforcement officers were at the scene within seconds but were unable to prevent the minivan from tipping over, and one of the passengers who had tried to run from the crash site was crushed by the vehicle.
“The minivan toppled and pinned the young man,” Olivarez said. “We cannot confirm whether he was hit by the van while he was climbing out of it or whether he was still standing too close to it when it went over sideways.”
The traveler has been identified as a 22-year-old undocumented immigrant. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Officers succeeded in corralling the remaining travelers and identified the driver as Francisco Lee Morales, who is old enough to be charged as an adult. His front-seat passenger is believed to have been complicit in the human smuggling effort and has been identified as Erica Andrea Beltran, 18, of San Antonio.
Both suspects have been taken into custody by the Dimmit County Sheriff’s Office on charges related to their evasive actions on the road and their attempts at human smuggling.
Four surviving passengers have been identified as undocumented immigrants and have been remanded into the custody of the US Border Patrol.
The Highway Patrol is investigating the fatality. Morales may face additional felony charges in La Salle County related to his passenger’s death.
La Salle Deputy Pargas was injured in the incident, having been struck in the leg by railroad ballast rocks when the minivan went over the earth berm and its wheels were still spinning.
Investigator Olivarez said this week that the case serves as a reminder that human smuggling efforts continue unabated across South Texas and that many of those recruited to transport undocumented immigrants are inexperienced teenagers who have been lured to the illegal work by the prospect of large pay-offs in rapid time.
“They are ruining their lives,” the investigator said, “and they are endangering others while they do it. In this case, it resulted in a young man’s death.”
The investigator also pointed to the suspect’s erratic and dangerous driving as a serious road hazard to other motorists.
“We are cautioning anyone on the road to be aware of other motorists at all times, especially when emergency lights or law enforcement vehicles are seen,” the investigator said. “In this case, the pursuit between Dimmit and La Salle counties went along a two-lane road and another motorist was forced to swerve into the roadside ditch to avoid a head-on collision.
“If you see an incident unfolding or witness a pursuit, the safest thing to do is get out of the way, get off the road, steer clear,” Olivarez said. “The speeds at which these suspects are driving make any crash likely fatal.”