Woman sentenced to seven years in fatal Del Rio crash

The seven-year prison sentence closes the criminal case, but it cannot restore what Benito Omar Calvillo’s wife, son and parents lost when the 29-year-old Del Rio man died in a June 2024 crash. Calvillo was born Dec. 4, 1994, and his funeral plans at Trinity Chapel and burial at San Felipe Cemetery underscored how deeply the loss reached into one local family.

Karen Aida Hernandez was sentenced to seven years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice after pleading guilty April 14 before 83rd Judicial District Judge Robert E. Cadena to collision involving death, a second-degree felony under Texas law. Cadena also gave her 266 days of jail credit and ordered her to pay $400 in court costs. Under Texas Transportation Code Section 550.021, a collision resulting in death is punishable by two to 20 years in prison, placing this Del Rio case squarely in the state’s most serious category of traffic-related prosecutions.

The crash happened June 6, 2024, in the 1700 block of U.S. Highway 277 in far south Del Rio, near the area known locally as Eagle Pass Hill. Del Rio police said a passerby called 9-1-1 at 6:35 a.m. after finding a person lying in a concrete drainage channel off the roadway. Detectives linked debris and vehicle parts at the scene to a black Jeep Grand Cherokee with right-front damage, and Hernandez was arrested that same day. Police said Hernandez initially told investigators she had struck a deer.

District Attorney Suzanne West said after sentencing that the plea reflected the fact that the criminal conduct in the case was leaving the scene. She also credited the Del Rio Police Department and Assistant District Attorney Daniel Esquivel for bringing the case to a close in district court. For Val Verde County, the outcome marks a rare point of finality in a fatal crash case that began as an early-morning roadway death and ended as a felony conviction.

The result carries weight beyond one family and one defendant. Texas recorded 4,150 traffic deaths in 2024, including 768 pedestrian fatalities, and Texas Department of Transportation said 50.12% of the state’s traffic deaths occurred on rural roads. In a county where Highway 277 and other rural corridors can turn deadly in a matter of seconds, the Hernandez sentence stands as a reminder that fatal crashes can become criminal cases when investigators determine a driver’s conduct crossed the line from accident into felony offense.