WACO, TX – A McLennan County jury has sentenced a Texas woman to prison after prosecutors said she allowed her intoxicated 14-year-old son to drive, leading to a fatal crash that killed a bicyclist in Bellmead. The case, which unfolded from a late-night decision in July, centered on a pattern of prior incidents involving the same teen behind the wheel.
Erika Martinez-Ramirez was convicted Tuesday of endangering a child and sentenced to two years in prison, according to the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors said the crash happened July 14, 2024, around 1:30 a.m., when Martinez-Ramirez handed her car keys to her son and instructed him to take his 10-year-old sister to retrieve clothes from a nearby home.
Crash details and prior warnings
The teen, who was too young to legally drive, struck a bicyclist identified as 67-year-old Dennis Welch before crashing into a house, according to local reporting by CBS affiliate KWTX. Welch died at the scene. The 10-year-old girl sustained minor injuries.
Prosecutors outlined a history of the boy driving illegally prior to the fatal crash. On Dec. 12, 2023, an officer stopped the teen while he was driving his mother’s car with several other children inside. Martinez-Ramirez was cited at that time for allowing her son to drive.
Two weeks later, the teen was again behind the wheel when he hit another vehicle and fled. Authorities said they contacted Martinez-Ramirez following that incident and warned her about the risks. Prosecutors said officers “repeated to her that allowing her son to drive was unacceptable.”
Charging decision and sentencing
Officials said Martinez-Ramirez was not charged with manslaughter because there was no evidence she knew her son was intoxicated at the time of the crash. She had initially faced a criminally negligent homicide charge, but prosecutors instead pursued the endangering a child count, noting both charges carry the same punishment and that the latter was easier to prove.
Authorities declined to release details about the 14-year-old’s case due to his age.
The prosecution was led by assistant district attorneys Michaelina Yearty and Duncan Widmann, who emphasized the repeated nature of the conduct in their statement. “Parents are rarely prosecuted for crimes committed by their children, but this mother’s actions were so irresponsible and so frequent that both prosecution and a maximum sentence were warranted,” they said.
Bellmead crash, Texas mom sentenced, child endangerment case, Dennis Welch bicyclist, McLennan County DA