Drunk driver sentenced in North Texas crash that killed 9-year-old girl and her parents
A drunk driver received the maximum sentence of 20 years after he pleaded guilty to intoxication manslaughter in a wrong-way crash that killed a North Texas family of three.
Sione Nusi, 49, was convicted of three counts of manslaughter and sentenced to 20 years on each count, with the sentences to run concurrently, according to the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office.
While intoxicated, Nusi was driving the wrong way on Loop 820 in Haltom City on Aug. 31, 2020, when his pickup truck crashed head-on into another vehicle, the district attorney’s office said. A man, a woman and a 9-year-old girl in the other car died.
The Mesquite school district identified the child who died as 9-year-old Sofia Garcia, a fourth-grader at Lawrence Elementary School. Her mother, Mayra Pallares, a 33-year-old bilingual clerical aide at Cannaday Elementary in Mesquite ISD, and her father, 35-year-old Favian Chavez Garcia, also died in the crash.
Nusi admitted to drinking beer and consuming kava, “a plant extract with sedative effects,” the district attorney’s office said.
This story was originally published May 14, 2024, 1:23 PM.
