A Texas 19-year-old has been charged with killing a young mother in a violent crash Sunday night as she drove with her toddler son and her mother.
Erick Raphael Hernandez, of Pearland, was charged Monday with intoxication manslaughter in the death of 23-year-old Taylor Phillips, court records show. As of Tuesday morning, he had been released from the Harris County Jail on $30,000 bond.
ABC 13 in Houston reported that Phillips was driving an SUV with her mother and 1-year-old son inside when Hernandez crossed three lanes of traffic on a South Houston street and slammed into Phillips' vehicle with his truck.
The entire crash was caught on a security camera outside a nearby auto repair shop, the news station said. The grainy footage, seen below, appears to show Hernandez’s truck smash into the front driver’s side of Phillips’ SUV. The impact flings debris across the roadway.
Phillips died at the scene.
Her son and 48-year-old mother were hospitalized with serious, but not life-threatening, injuries. The victims' family told ABC 13 both have since been released to recover at home.
Phillips’ social media profile is filled with photos of her son, who celebrated his first birthday in August.
"Sometimes when I need a miracle, I look into my son's eyes and realize I've already created one," Phillips wrote on Facebook alongside a photo of her son in October. In another post, she wrote that she had waited for the love of her son her entire life and would "cherish it forever."
Phillips also often mentioned a sister, Tyré Rai Sai Phillips, on her Facebook page. According to the Houston Police Department, Tyré Phillips was an innocent bystander at a party on April 14, 2013, when multiple fights broke out, during which shots were fired.
Tyré Phillips, who was killed as she sought safety, died a week after her 19th birthday. It was not immediately clear if an arrest has ever been made in her slaying.
Court records obtained by ABC 13 indicated that Hernandez was drinking at a bar with a cousin before Sunday's deadly crash. The legal drinking age in Texas is 21.
Hernandez, whose appears intoxicated in his mugshot, had bloodshot eyes, slurred speech and was off-balance after the crash, the news station said. When questioned at the scene, Hernandez admitted he drank a few beers.
"Based on his field sobriety tests, it was a lot more than a few," Sean Teare, a member of the Harris County District Attorney's Vehicular Crimes Unit, told The Houston Chronicle.
Teare told the Chronicle that investigators had learned where Hernandez had been drinking prior to the crash. ABC 13 identified the bar as Frontera Events Venue, which is located about a mile from the crash site.
"Obviously, at 19 he shouldn't be drinking anywhere," Teare told the newspaper.
ABC 13 reported that the court records indicate Hernandez had been drinking since 6 p.m. Sunday but could not remember when he'd had his last drink. A fake ID and bar receipt were found in his car after the crash.
"We believe that he spent well over $100 at the bar drinking alcohol that day," Teare told the news station.
The district attorney's office is now investigating the bar to determine if workers there overserved Hernandez. Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission records indicate Frontera, which obtained its license in October 2017, has had six complaints filed against it this year involving alcohol being in the hands of underage individuals.
One of those complaints, in which a violation was not found, involved employing someone under the age of 18 to sell or handle alcohol. The remaining five complaints dealt with selling or serving alcohol to minors and serving alcohol to someone already intoxicated.
Three of the five complaints were substantiated, the records show. One of the three substantiated claims also included the sale of drugs by the licensee.
Teare told ABC 13 that Frontera's owner and employees could face charges related to the fatal crash.
“If an establishment, if a server sees somebody who is intoxicated, they’ve got to stop serving,” Teare said. “They’ve got to take steps to ensure that person doesn’t leave their establishment and kill people.”
The district attorney’s office is also considering action to shut the bar’s doors for good.
"I just know that a 19-year-old individual came out of that establishment highly intoxicated and moments later took a 23-year-old's life," Teare told ABC 13. "That shouldn't happen. Someone in addition to that 19-year-old is going to have to answer for that."
About the Author
