A La Feria High School football coach has been arrested in connection with an Oct. 30, 2021 hit-and-run accident that left a U.S. Marine veteran dead.
Jaime Carlos Guerra was arrested and arraigned at 10 a.m. Wednesday before Eloy Cano Jr., Cameron County justice of the peace Precinct 5, Place 2, the judge told The Brownsville Herald.
Records indicate that Guerra is charged with accident involving death and tampering with physical evidence. His bond was set at $15,000, the judge said.
The suspect was no longer listed as being jailed in the Cameron County facility as of Wednesday night, according to jail records accessed online late in the evening.
Guerra is accused of driving over Robin Lee Hernandez, 37, who was walking along the roadway in La Feria.
Details of the investigation that led to the arrest were not available. On Wednesday, La Feria Police Chief Cesar Diaz did not return calls seeking information about the arrest and case.
La Feria School District officials were also not available for comment following the arrest.
Video surveillance showed a black truck striking Hernandez and leaving the scene. Hernandez was struck by a second vehicle, and the driver of that car stopped to render aid, authorities said. Through an investigation, authorities said they were able to connect Guerra to the accident.
Cano said that after receiving and reviewing information from law enforcement officials, there was enough probable cause Tuesday to issue the warrant for Guerra’s arrest. Guerra surrendered himself to Cano’s office on Wednesday, the judge said.
Ginger Poynter, Hernandez’s mother, said her son served three tours of duty in Iraq. She learned of Guerra’s arrest Wednesday after receiving a call from the La Feria Police Department. She also received notification from the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office.
Poynter, who lives out of state, said she received a call from her family that her son had been killed. She was devastated by his death.
“He was walking, he was coming from a trailer park that was on the frontage road, and he was walking back to La Feria and was struck,” she said.
Poynter said she would be able to better cope with her son’s death if it had been only an accident in which the driver who struck him had stopped to help him.
“What kind of person just leaves somebody like a dog?” she asked. “I could forgive an accident but he just left him.”
