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A 39-year-old Mission woman accused of renting a vehicle used in a 2019 fatal smuggling crash that killed two San Juan residents and sent six people in the country illegally to the hospital has been arrested after nearly three years on the run.
Alejandra Gonzalez Lopez was booked into the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center on Wednesday on an indictment charging her with two counts of murder, a count of engaging in organized criminal activity, six counts of smuggling causing serious bodily injury, four counts of evading arrest causing death and four counts of evading arrest causing serious bodily injury.
She had been a fugitive since April 2021 after failing to show up to her arraignment on the indictment.
The crash happened near La Joya on March 13, 2019 when the rented vehicle driven by Peñitas resident Jesus Eduardo Estrada, 23, crashed into 45-year-old Leonel Martinez Jr.’s vehicle, killing him and his passenger, 69-year-old Aurora Chavez.
A Texas Department of Public Safety crash report said Estrada was driving a green 2004 Ford Expedition with “unrestrained occupants” eastbound on Highway 83 near La Joya at a high rate of speed while fleeing from authorities.
He drove onto a grass median to pass other vehicles, lost control, veered into the westbound lanes and hit a white 2007 Nissan Sentra head-on.
Martinez was driving the Sentra and Chavez was his passenger.
Estrada was previously sentenced to 40 years in prison after being convicted of two counts of murder, five counts of smuggling of persons causing serious bodily injury and one count of engaging in organized criminal activity.
In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors dismissed two charges of evading arrest or detention causing death, one charge of smuggling of persons causing serious bodily injury or death and six counts of evading arrest or detention causing serious bodily injury.
Estrada is eligible for parole in 2039.
The remaining suspect in the case, 30-year-old Peñitas resident Humberto Garcia previously pleaded guilty to engaging in organized criminal activity, to two counts of evading arrest or detention causing death and to six counts of evading arrest causing serious bodily injury.
In exchange for the guilty pleas, prosecutors dismissed two murder counts and six counts of smuggling of persons causing serious bodily injury or death.
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Garcia is eligible for parole on March 20.
As for Gonzalez, she is currently being held in the Hidalgo County Adult Detention Center without bond.
