Suspect in fatal San Juan wreck has prior DWI arrests on record

SAN JUAN — An Alamo man’s trip to take his two daughters to college “turned into something terrible” Saturday, the suspect’s lawyer said.

Samuel Montoya, 41, was arraigned Sunday on charges of intoxication manslaughter, intoxication assault, resisting arrest and reckless driving after San Juan police arrested him early Saturday morning at the intersection of Nolana Loop and Raul Longoria Road.

There, Chief Juan Gonzalez said Montoya drunkenly smashed his SUV into 44-year-old Blanca Cantu’s pickup truck, in which Norma Rios, 48, had been a passenger, Chief Juan Gonzalez said.

Two hours after the wreck, Rios, of San Juan, died at McAllen Medical Center, though Cantu, also of San Juan, remained in stable condition following surgery, the chief said.

None of this was intended when Montoya, a migrant worker, drove his two daughters down from Michigan in order to attend South Texas College this month, said the suspect’s lawyer, Mauro Barreiro.

“He was going to stay a couple of days and then it turned into something terrible,” he said. “This is something the family didn’t expect.”

Barreiro did not have details of his client’s prior record and said he would visit Montoya at the Hidalgo County Detention Center to gather more information. But police records from Pharr and Corpus Christi, and the Texas Department of Public Safety, include multiple driving while intoxicated arrests.

About 1:17 a.m. Saturday, Gonzalez said, an officer swerved to avoid crashing with Montoya as he barreled his SUV down the eastbound Expressway 83 frontage road against traffic.

After that officer radioed a bulletin to watch out for the gray GMC Yukon, another spotted Montoya driving north on Raul Longoria Road moments later, the chief said.

But by the time officers caught up with Montoya – they believe he was traveling at least 100 mph prior to the crash – he had already smashed into Cantu’s truck, Gonzalez said.

He also said the suspect told officers he had just left a Mission bar and refused to give officers more information after they told him he was under arrest.

“We found a lot of open containers in the vehicle,” Gonzalez told The Monitor Saturday.

After Montoya was transported to an area hospital following the wreck, testing revealed a blood alcohol content of .31 — nearly four times the legal limit.

“That’s how intoxicated this guy was,” the chief said.

San Juan Municipal Judge Eloy Hernandez officially charged Montoya with intoxicated manslaughter, a second-degree felony; intoxicated assault, a third-degree felony; resisting arrest, a class A misdemeanor; and reckless driving, a class B misdemeanor.

If convicted on each charge, Montoya could respectively receive up to 20 years in prison and $10,000 in fines; up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines; up to one year in jail and $4,000 in fines; and up to six months in jail and $2,000 in fines.

Hernandez set Montoya’s combined bond at $420,000.

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Neal Morton covers education and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4472.