Las Cruces community remembers mother, child killed in suspected DWI crash

LAS CRUCES, N.M. - Memorial services began Monday evening for a young Las Cruces mother and son killed in a suspected drunk driving crash in El Paso earlier this month.

Earlier this month, 6-year-old Jose Luis Wences and his mother, 25-year-old Elide Yvonne Garcia, died after their car was struck by a wrong-way driver on Loop 375 in El Paso.

"My mom was waiting for them," said Jessica Garcia, who lost her sister and nephew that night. "They didn't make it back home. They were supposed to come back home."

Garcia's boyfriend, Alberto Cuellar, was critically injured in the crash, her sister told ABC-7.

El Paso police arrested 73-year-old Juan Martinez and charged him with two counts of intoxicated manslaughter, according to the department.

Garcia was studying criminal justice at NMSU with dreams of being a lawyer, her sister told ABC-7.

"She wanted to help our community," Jessica Garcia told ABC-7. "She would always want to defend those who needed to be defended."

Wences was a first grader at Cesar Chavez Elementary School.

"He would like to make the truck sounds," his aunt said last week. "If he didn't want to eat his healthy meals, (my sister) would say, 'You've got to give that truck gas.'"

The community overwhelmingly contributed toward their funeral services, raising more than $10,000.

After Monday evening's services, a 'Celebration of Life' will be held Tuesday afternoon at 12 p.m. at St Genevieve's Catholic Church in Las Cruces.

"There's a big celebration in Heaven for both of them," Garcia told ABC-7.