A Mission man is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday morning on more than a dozen charges, including two counts of murder, for a fatal smuggling crash in November that left two men dead.
A grand jury indicted Mario Oscar Maldonado on March 31 on the two counts of murder in addition to two counts of evading arrest detention with vehicle causing death; 12 counts of smuggling of persons causing serious bodily injury or death; and 10 counts of evading arrest or detention with a previous conviction or serious bodily injury.
Texas Department of Public Safety troopers arrested Maldonado on Nov. 16 following the fatal crash, which happened about 8:03 a.m. on Jara Chinas Road north of Farm-to-Market Road 2221, which is north of La Joya.
Prior to the crash, DPS troopers were communicating about a black or green pick-up truck that had possibly picked up 20 people entering the country illegally.
When a trooper spotted the vehicle, a black F-150, DPS tried to pull the vehicle over for failing to signal the required distance before turning and a chase ensued.
“The vehicle traveled northbound onto a dirt road where the driver later lost control of his vehicle and had a roll-over crash,” an affidavit stated.
The crash killed Jose Angel Ramirez Lopez and Robert Leon Feliciano, according to the indictment.
The men were in the bed of the truck when the crash occurred.
The initial DPS news release also noted that Maldonado was driving at an unsafe speed before losing control.
Maldonado remains jailed at the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center on a total of $2,101,000 in bonds.
