Jury finds man guilty of killing teens on Loop 375 while driving drunk
An El Paso jury found Hector Tellez guilty of two counts of intoxicated manslaughter and one count of aggravated assault in the deaths of two Christian rock band members.
Prosecutors said 34-year-old Hector Tellez was drunk when he hit and killed the two 16-year-olds on Loop 375 back in 2011.
Prosecutors called 16 witnesses, but the defense, only one. The trial started on Monday.
On Monday, a an El Paso Police officer testified a 30 pack of beer was found near Tellez’s truck at the crash that night.
Prosecutors told jurors in opening statements on Monday that Tellez had a blood alcohol content of .29, hours after the crash. That’s three times the legal limit.
Prosecutors called EMS responder Jesse Center to the stand as the state’s final witness.
Center tried to revive the boys at the crash.
He also tried to take Tellez to the hospital, as is required by state law when someone in a wreck smells like alcohol.
But the EMS worker said Tellez wouldn’t even tell him his name.
“He refused to tell us his name. He said he didn’t have to tell us anything. He had just killed a kid. The least he could do was cooperate,” Center said.
The only person called by the defense was Mark Dobbs, the teenage friend of the boys who had called his buddies that night when his car broke down on the loop.
The defense only asked about positioning of the car when it was broken down.