EDINBURG — Adrian Segovia wants the man responsible for hitting and killing his brother to remember one thing as he heads to prison for 14 years.
“I just want you to remember his name,” Adrian said. “Pedro Segovia.”
During a tearful hearing Tuesday morning, members of Pedro’s family addressed 67-year-old Edinburg resident Francisco Vanegas, who held his head down as he listened to several family members after learning his sentence.
Vanegas, who was shackled as he stood in front of state District Judge Fernando Mancias, entered a guilty plea to accident involving death on July 10, a week shy of the third anniversary of Pedro’s death.
Pedro’s widow, Janet Segovia, choked back tears as she told Vanegas she understood that he apologized.
“I know you apologized and I would love to accept your apology, but I can’t,” Janet said.
Janet became so overwhelmed during the victim impact statement that she had trouble speaking and after telling Vanegas she couldn’t accept his apology, she had to sit back down.
Approximately a dozen of Pedro’s family members, including children and young adults, wore shirts honoring his memory during the hearing.
Before being sentenced, Vanegas offered his condolences to the family.
“I feel bad for what happened,” Vanegas said. “May God grant them peace to their hearts.”
He also said it was a sudden accident and that he had no intent to kill anyone.
“It was something so sudden I really couldn’t do anything about it,” Vanegas said.
On July 17, 2016, a woman who had been arguing with her daughter over a radio station choice admitted to being distracted when she hit Pedro, who was riding his motorcycle.
That impact caused Pedro to fall from his motorcycle and he was lying injured on FM 1423 at around 10 p.m. when Vanegas, who was distracted by flashing lights from witnesses of the crash who were trying to get the attention of motorists, drove over Pedro.
“The driver … was not able to take timely evasive action to avoid driving over the pedestrian on the roadway,” a Texas Department of Transportation crash report states.
Vanegas then left the scene of the fatal accident and was later arrested.
Jail records reveal that Vanegas had been released from jail on charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child approximately two weeks before he ran over Pedro. Jail records show Pharr police originally arrested the man in 2015 and those charges stemmed from a 2007 allegation.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice records show Vanegas is now serving an 11-year sentence on two counts of indecency with a child and two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child.
The 14-year sentence will run concurrent with the sexual abuse of a child sentence.
