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EDINBURG — Aide Rios cried out for her teenage son, Jastin, here in court Thursday afternoon, sobbing that her soul had been ripped out after a vehicle crashed into their home and crushed him to death in 2021.
Those cries came during the sentencing hearing for 24-year-old Jesus Cruz, who received a 15-year sentence for intoxication manslaughter with a vehicle.
He also received a five-year sentence for the second count of intoxication assault with a vehicle causing serious bodily injury, which will run concurrently with the 15-year sentence.
Cruz was behind the wheel of a black Chevrolet Equinox driving 100 mph in a 35 mph zone, according to Pharr police, and crashed into Aide’s home, located in the 200 block of North Veterans Boulevard in Pharr, at around 3:33 a.m. on June 28, 2021.
Jastin Rios, 16, was asleep inside his bedroom at the time Cruz crashed into their home, killing the teen.
“My whole life changed,” Aide said in Spanish during her testimony Wednesday. “I have no desire to live.”
Her 14-year-old son Diego was also injured in the crash and serves as inspiration for Aide to find the will to live for Diego and her 7-year-old daughter Valentina.
Valentina, though only five at the time, still recalls all the injuries Jastin displayed when police removed him from the rubble of what was once their home, her mother said.
Those injuries were visible in the bodycam and dashcam footage shown during the hearing.
The officer who pulled Jastin out, Alfredo Garcia, of the Pharr Police Department, testified about how he found Diego standing next to the vehicle that was in his room, looking at the rubble beneath him where Jastin was.
Garcia, who seemed visibly bothered during testimony, stated that he evacuated Diego once he saw the vehicle emit flames and called for his partner, Jose Montiel, to assist him in pulling Jastin from the room.
Bodycam footage showed the officers drag Jastin’s body from his collapsed room and onto the grass outside. Cries of agony from Aide could be heard as the footage showed her collapse next to her son.
Aide testified that she told Jastin that everything would be OK as she knelt beside him because she didn’t want to accept that he was gone.
The footage also showed how the officers began to bang on all the tenants’ doors due to the fire building up, causing a large amount of smoke to emit from the vehicle.
During her testimony, Aide stated that she had been asleep in her room with Valentina when she heard what she could only describe as an explosion that woke her up.
She quickly ran to Jastin and Diego’s room but as soon as she opened the door, she was greeted with a large mattress at the entryway and a large amount of debris. Her first thought was that something had crashed through the roof or that it collapsed.
Aide tried to call 911 but couldn’t bring herself to do so in the panic and confusion caused by the scene she witnessed in her sons’ room. She said she began to bang on the walls in attempts to call for help from somebody.
Aide called for her sons with Diego being the only one who responded. She asked Diego where Jastin was and he said that he was asleep, so she asked Diego to wake him.
“He said, ‘No, mom, I can’t wake him up,’” Aide said.
Eventually, she grabbed Valentina and climbed out of her window and managed to call emergency services who assured her they were already at the scene.
Before being sentenced, Cruz addressed both his and Jastin’s family and asked for forgiveness. He explained that all he cared about at the time was going out with his friends and having fun as a way to blow off steam.
He added that he hadn’t fully understood what had occurred up until he was facing a judge for his arraignment.
Investigator Edward Chavez of Pharr police said during his testimony that Cruz’s blood alcohol concentration was nearly twice the legal limit and that he had traces of synthetic marijuana in his system.
Cruz was booked on June 29, 2021 and indicted on Aug. 19 that same year.
