Amos
A 31-year-old Nebraska man accused of causing a fiery, fatal wrong-way crash on U.S. Highway 281 last year is apparently representing himself after a judge has allowed two court-appointed attorneys to withdraw from his case.
Tyrone Amos is charged with intoxicated manslaughter and two counts of intoxication assault with a vehicle causing serious bodily injury following the May 4, 2021 crash that killed Victor Bazan Jr. and injured two others.
Witnesses at the scene pulled Amos from his burning vehicle, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Attorney David R. Cantu first represented Amos. He filed a motion to withdraw as counsel on June 21, which state District Judge Fernando Mancias granted on June 22.
In that motion, Cantu said that he and Amos “have not been able to have a relationship conducive to create a proper attorney/client relationship.”
Mancias then appointed attorney Mauricio Martinez to represent Amos.
Martinez filed a motion to withdraw as counsel on Aug. 31. That motion is sealed and Mancias granted the motion Sept. 8.
It’s not immediately clear why Martinez withdrew and court records indicate that Amos apparently is representing himself.
A court entry from Sept. 9 indicates that a status hearing was scheduled for Amos to review all of the evidence against him and to have an advisory attorney appointed to him.
He also sent a letter to Mancias dated Aug. 24 where he indicated that he wants to represent himself “until trial.”
“I’m writing on behalf of the deception, and the way I’m being treated in your district and county system,” Amos wrote. “If you receive this letter and there isn’t a Habeas Corpus Application filed on my behalf by my attorney, then I would like to represent myself until trial.”
Habeas Corpus applications are filed prior to an indictment where defense attorneys attempt to have judges reduce bonds so that clients can bail out of jail.
Amos has had two filed on his behalf, according to court records.
Initially, his bonds were $400,000, but now they are $45,000.
Amos claims that he is being illegally held and that he can afford bond.
“I’m a whole year overdue on release on a bond the record reflects I can afford,” Amos wrote in the Aug. 24 letter.
Bail bond companies are often reluctant to put the required amount up for a bond if an individual does not have significant ties to the community.
Amos is from Omaha, Nebraska, and has a criminal history.
He once went viral on social media after interacting with the Galena Police Department in Kansas, who had posted on Facebook that they were looking for him after he allegedly fled from a traffic stop.
Amos apparently responded to the Facebook post, according to KSN-TV, which reported that he agreed to turn himself in and brought police a box of Krispy Kreme donuts when he did so.
That happened in 2018.
Amos had only been in the Rio Grande Valley for two months when he was arrested after the crash that happened at 4:35 a.m. that day in the 14000 block of North Expressway 281.
Edinburg police allege that he had been drinking beer, taking shots and smoking marijuana in downtown McAllen before he drove southbound in the northbound lanes of Highway 281 when he crashed head-on into a Dodge Ram, causing a wreck that involved three vehicles and resulted in Bazan’s death.
Bazan died at the scene and his wife suffered a broken arm, broken leg and a swollen left eye with a laceration, according to the affidavit.
“Officer Martinez will testify that he then spoke with Amos who was laying (sic) on his left side without a shirt in the backseat of a white Ram pickup. Officer Martinez will testify that Amos stated he was drinking downtown and was faded,” the affidavit stated.
Police found another person who was in and out of consciousness with fractured ribs and fluid in her lungs.
A hearing is scheduled for next week where Amos will seek to get himself out of jail, according to court records.
“It’s not fair that we all have knowledge that I’m being illegally held and no one is doing anything to help me, so at that point I can help myself if nobody else will,” Amos wrote in the Aug. 24 letter.
