Update 3:55 p.m.
Octavio Vega wept on the witness stand this afternoon when he told a Travis County jury how he and his children have been torn apart by the loss of his wife, who died after she was struck by a car while waiting at a South Austin bus stop last year.
The couple’s three children were 4, 9 and 12 when Adriana Morales-Catalan, 28, died, said Vega, 36.
Vega said since her death, his middle child, Noel, has spent a lot of time crying in his room. His youngest, Jose Manuel, has sat at the window waiting for his mother to come home.
“We miss her very much,” Vega said. “She was the flower in the family.”
Vega testified during the sentencing phase of Erick Nuncio-Moreno’s manslaughter trial. Prosecutors say Nuncio-Moreno raced his 2001 Toyota Celica at speeds up to 80 mph hour on South First Street last year when he lost control and crashed into a bus stop, killing Morales-Catalan and 53-year-old Maria N. Gaona De Corona, 53.
Nuncio-Moreno faces up to 20 years in prison but is eligible for probation because he has never been convicted of a felony. Prosecutor Angie Creasy told jurors during opening statements of the sentencing phase that she would request a prison sentence.
Defense lawyer Mark Sampson said, “We hope that at the end of the day you’ll think that Erick is someone that is worth saving and has value.”
While Vega testified, one of Corona’s three children wiped tears from her eyes.
At the defense table, Nuncio-Moreno also cried.
Update 1:27 a.m. A Travis County jury has found Erick Armando Nuncio-Moreno guilty of two counts of manslaughter for crashing his car into a South Austin bus stop and killing Adriana Morales-Catalán, 28, and Maria N. Gaona De Corona, 53, last year.
Nuncio-Moreno, faces up to 20 years in prison at sentencing, which is set to begin this afternoon.
Earlier After offering condolences to the families of two women who died after Erick Nuncio-Moreno’s car crashed into a South Austin bus stop last year, Nuncio-Moreno’s lawyers told a Travis County jury today that it was a tragic accident.
“This case is about a tired young man who was trying to get to work and had a bad accident,” defense lawyer Mark Sampson said during closing arguments.
Prosecutors argued that Nuncio-Moreno, 21, is guilty of manslaughter.
“They are dead because he wanted to race,” Assistant District Attorney Angie Creasy said, referring to Adriana Morales-Catalán, 28, and Maria N. Gaona De Corona, 53, who died while waiting for the bus.
The jury in state District Judge Julie Kocurek’s court began deliberating at about 10:45 a.m.
Nuncio-Moreno is accused of killing the women while they waited at a Capital Metro shelter on South First Street just north of Stassney Lane at about 7:30 a.m. on March 6, 2010.
Prosecutors say Nuncio-Moreno was speeding when he left the roadway and crashed into a bus shelter near Emerald Woods Drive. Police were unable to estimate how fast he was going, but a prosecution expert said the damage was consistent with someone driving about 75-80 miles per hour, as witnesses had also estimated.
A defense expert said the damage to Nuncio-Moreno’s car could have occurred at speeds as low as 45 miles per hour.
To find Nuncio-Moreno guilty of manslaughter, the jury must find that he acted recklessly - that he was aware of but consciously disregarded a substantial and unjustifiable risk that someone would die.
Manslaughter is a second-degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. If he is found not guilty of manslaughter the jury may consider whether Nuncio-Moreno is guilty of criminally negligent homicide, a state jail felony punishable by up to two years in prison.
To be found guilty of that crime the jury must find that he ought to have been aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that someone would die from his actions.
Corona was a mother of three and grandmother of eight who worked at Furr’s Cafeteria as a cook for more than 30 years, her son Keith Corona testified.
Morales-Catalán was married with three young children, according to testimony by her brother, Manuel Morales-Catalán. She worked as a hotel housekeeper.
Nuncio-Moreno attended Austin Community College and the day of the crash he was driving his 2001 Toyota Celica north on South First Street to his job as a service technician at Howdy Honda on Ben White Boulevard.
It was a Saturday morning and witness Manny Villareal, 30, told the jury that when Nuncio-Moreno’s Celica pulled up next to him at the stop light at Stassney Lane, he heard Nuncio-Moreno rev his engine.
Villareal said he did not make eye contact with Nuncio-Moreno and did not engage him in a race but when the light turned green the Celica “spun its tires and took off like a bat out of hell,” accelerating to 75-80 miles per hour before losing control, flipping over and crashing into the bus stop.
Villareal’s passenger Wilmer Salazar, 26, gave a different version of events, testifying that he did not hear Nuncio-Moreno rev the Celica’s engine, nor did he hear the car chirp its tires as it sped off.
Defense lawyers pointed out Salazar’s version during closing arguments to show that prosecutors did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Nuncio-Moreno was reckless. Sampson suggested that he may have briefly fallen asleep.
Nuncio-Moreno did not testify and did not give a statement to police after the crash. His lawyers argued that while Nuncio-Moreno enjoyed cars and had competed in time trial events, the effect that performance upgrades had on his car’s small engine were minimal.
Prosecutors argued that Nuncio-Moreno was practicing because he was scheduled to compete in a car club racing event the following day.
“He wants to race his car down South First Street because he wanted adrenaline,” prosecutor Steven Brand said. “It destroyed two people.”