BASTROP, Texas — It’s been just over five months since a deadly crash in Bastrop involving a Hays CISD school bus and a concrete pumper truck.
Now, just about a week before school starts, the man responsible for driving the truck that swerved into the school bus carrying preschool students, 42-year-old Jerry Hernandez, appeared in a Bastrop County court for the first time. Hernandez is charged with criminally negligent homicide.
Five-year-old Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, who was on the bus, and 33-year-old Ryan Wallace, a Ph.D. student at the University of Texas at Austin who was driving behind it, were both killed in the crash.
Last week, Hernandez sent a handwritten letter to the judge asking for new representation. In the letter, Hernandez claimed his attorney at the time was only concerned with the best interests of Hernandez’s employer. He also claimed that in conversations with that attorney, the attorney said he was not going to put Hernandez’s employer in jail because the insurance is maxed out at $500,000.
The state attorney had no objections to the request and Hernandez was given a new court-appointed attorney, Justin Fohn from Bastrop.
According to court documents, FJM Concrete LLC, the company that operates the truck Hernandez was driving didn’t finish a full background check on him. Those documents also revealed that Hernandez admitted to using marijuana the night before the crash, cocaine the morning of and only driving on three hours of sleep.
FJM Concrete faces multiple civil lawsuits connected to the crash. The families of multiple preschool students and teachers who were on the bus are all seeking payments, but their attorneys are concerned that because the law only required FJM to have $500,000 in insurance coverage, there won’t be enough money to help all the victims.
Hernandez’s new attorney declined to make any comments at the courthouse. The Bastrop County District Attorney's Office will formally present its case against Hernandez to a grand jury on Tuesday. After that, his next hearing is scheduled for Oct. 28.