Vehicular manslaughter

Criminal Defense

Not every fatal crash is a crime.

Texas requires more than a death and a driver. Manslaughter requires recklessness — conscious disregard of a substantial and unjustifiable risk. Criminally negligent homicide requires a gross deviation from the standard of care. Ordinary negligence, the kind that produces civil liability, is not enough for a conviction, and cases are regularly overcharged in the days after a fatality when public attention is highest.

Where the defence lives

• Causation. Another driver, a mechanical failure, road design, weather, or the conduct of the person who died can break the chain the State needs.
• Reconstruction. Speed estimates from crush damage and skid analysis are frequently wrong. Vehicle event data recorders provide harder numbers, and they cut both ways.
• The toxicology. In an intoxication manslaughter case, the blood draw, chain of custody, laboratory procedure and the science of retrograde extrapolation are all open to examination — as is whether the specimen was lawfully obtained.
• Medical cause of death. Particularly where a pre-existing condition, a delayed death or treatment complications are involved.

Intoxication manslaughter is its own offence

It is charged as a second-degree felony, and it does not require the State to prove recklessness — only intoxication and causation. It commonly carries a deadly weapon finding, which changes parole eligibility, and it brings a licence suspension and community supervision conditions that continue long after any confinement.

The civil case is coming too

The family will usually bring a wrongful death claim, and what is said in the criminal case can be used in it. Coordinating the two — and understanding how insurance, statements and the timing of each proceeding interact — is part of defending the case properly rather than a separate problem to solve later.

What to do right now

Common questions