After nearly six hours in the car, Sergio DeLaGarza was less than five minutes from home when he woke up to his mother’s scream.
“I remember seeing two headlights heading toward our car,” DeLaGarza testified Tuesday. “She was putting her arm over me to protect me and that’s pretty much all I remember before the crash.”
When he woke up, DeLaGarza said he saw his mom slumped over the steering wheel to his left and he remembers looking for the family dog, Paris. He recalls getting out of the car, falling and waking up to frantic people trying to keep him awake. From his position on the ground, the then 15-year-old could see a portion of his sister’s body, but he didn’t see first responders working frantically trying to save his little brother’s life.
DeLaGarza took the stand Tuesday afternoon in the 161st Ector County District Court, to talk about the loss of his mother, Araceli Galbadon, 47 and his siblings, Kassandra DeLaGarza, 20, and Elias DeLaGarza, 9.
On Monday, the man prosecutors say is responsible for their deaths, Albertico Valenzuela, pleaded guilty to four counts of racing on a highway and now jurors must decide if the 21-year-old should be placed on probation or if he should receive a prison sentence of between two and 20 years.
In the days after the Oct. 1, 2018 crash, authorities said Valenzuela and El Paso resident Christian Flores, 22, were racing Dodge Challengers side-by-side down West 16th Street when Flores struck Valenzuela’s car near FM1936, lost control and then hit the Chevrolet Impala being driven by Galbadon.
On Tuesday, jurors watched multiple body cam, dash cam and surveillance store videos from that night. The store videos caught the vehicles racing by, crashing and Flores’ car erupting into flames. The body cam and dash cam videos caught paramedics performing CPR on Flores, the devastation wrought on the Flores and Galbadon vehicles and multiple interviews with Valenzuela.
Again and again, Valenzuela calmly told authorities he was not racing that night and he was traveling 55-60 miles an hour when the other driver lost control of his vehicle after hitting a dip in the road and hit him.
Texas Department of Public Safety accident reconstructionist Sgt. Jon Shock told jurors that technology revealed a dramatically different story.
Shock testified that the data recorders in both Challengers showed the young men were traveling at 111 miles an hour when they crossed FM1936 and hit the dip in the road. Flore’s car went airborne, causing it to accelerate to 125 mph before landing.
The data recorders show the cars were traveling at 108-109 miles an hour when Valenzuela’s car veered into Flores’ car, causing it to skid sideways into the oncoming lane of traffic, Shock said. Less than two seconds later, Flores’ car careened into Galbadon, who was driving 10 miles below the speed limit.
She had no time to react, Shock said. Her car was sent backwards, spinning 180 degrees and hitting a pickup parked in a game room lot before stopping.
Odessa Firefighter/Paramedic Josh Herron described the Galbadon vehicle as being “wadded up” and said it was probably one of the worst crashes he’s ever seen.
Dr. Tasha Greenberg, deputy chief medical examiner for Tarrant County, testified Flores, Galbadon and Kassandra DeLaGarza died that night as a result of extensive internal blunt force injuries. Elias DeLaGarza died two days later as a result of extensive internal injuries to his head.
Sergio DeLaGarza, now a 20-year-old Odessa College student who lives with his grandparents, said he suffered a broken clavicle and extensive injuries to his intestines that kept him in the hospital for a month.
On that night, the family was coming back from a cousin’s wedding in Chihuahua, Mexico. His family was laid to rest there and he often visits them, DeLaGarza said.
He told jurors he is trying to move past the crash because he knows dwelling on it won’t bring his family back. Still, he misses them a great deal and often gets sad.
First Assistant Ector County District Attorney Greg Barber asked DeLaGarza if he forgives Valenzuela.
“Part of me has, but I know what happened after and that makes me not want to,” DeLaGarza said.
Prior to DeLaGarza taking the stand, jurors learned Valenzuela was arrested in July 2020 after being accused of crashing into a fence while drunk. They learned Valenzuela continued to drive after the crash, despite the fact one wheel was down to its rim. The jurors watched body and dash cam videos of law enforcement officers speaking with Valenzuela after the incident.
The officers testified a barefoot Valenzuela reeked of alcohol and on the videos he was slurring his words and appeared confused about his birthday. When asked for his driver’s license, he got confused as to where his truck was and then after checking inside it, he realized he didn’t have his license with him. Valenzuela, who was wearing an ankle monitor because he was awaiting trial in the fatal crash, became belligerent while officers were putting him inside a patrol car and was seen repeatedly biting his seatbelt while waiting to be taken to jail.
DPS Trooper John Newman testified that on the way to the jail, Valenzuela was often nonsensical. At one point he said he was in high school, but playing college football. He refused to participate in field sobriety tests or to take a breath test, Newman said.
Barber and Assistant District Attorney Carmen Villalobos rested their case Tuesday afternoon.
Phillip Wildman represents Valenzuela and Judge Justin Low is presiding over the trial.
