Jerry Hernandez was sentenced to 18 years for each charge, but will serve the sentences concurrently.
AUSTIN, Texas — The truck driver who caused a deadly Hays CISD bus crash in Bastrop County in spring 2024 will spend the next 18 years in prison.
Jerry Hernandez was officially sentenced to 18 years in prison for each count in Bastrop County on Thursday, and the sentences will be served concurrently. Hernandez previously entered a guilty plea on manslaughter charges in June.
In March 2024, Hernandez was driving a concrete pumper truck that swerved into a Hays CISD bus on State Highway 21. The bus was carrying Tom Green Elementary School students home from a field trip at the Bastrop Zoo. Hernandez admitted to using drugs the night before and the morning of the crash.
Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, a 5-year-old who was on the bus, and 33-year-old Ryan Wallace, who was in his car that was also hit by Hernandez’ truck, both died as a result of the crash.
Parents share emotional victim statements
During Thursday’s sentencing, parents who were with their kids on the bus, parents who showed up at the scene and the teacher who was on the bus all gave their victim impact statements, many of them saying the shock and grief still lives with them today.
Some even said they get PTSD anytime they hear a loud noise or see oncoming cars in traffic, reliving the crash.
Several members from Wallace’s family also spoke, describing him as kind, caring, understanding, a genius and always someone who wanted to help others.
Wallace studied Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at UC Irvine, held a master’s degree in Biotechnology from Cal State University San Marcos and was pursuing a Ph.D. in Journalism at University of Texas at Austin, combining his passion for science and communication. But to his family, he was so much more than all his achievements.
“He was just a magnetic personality that people just gravitated to, and I mean, the world has lost a very, very brilliant person that could have made changes,” Ryan’s mother Lily Alvarez Wallace said. “We are just deeply saddened every day by the loss.”
In Ryan’s honor, his family wants to try to make changes to the law, such as increasing the punishment for people who drive trucks while on drugs.
“That’s what he would have wanted us to do, is to make changes, so that other people don’t go through what we’ve just gone through,” Wallace said.
They’re also asking people to write to the State’s Parole Board, so Hernandez stays in prison for his entire sentence.
Hays CISD also released a statement on Thursday, saying that they’re grateful for all the people who have been involved in seeking accountability from Hernandez. Below is an excerpt from that statement:
“The district’s focus remains on lifting up those who suffered trauma and loss. There is nothing that can ever bring back Ulises Montoya Rodriguez or Ryan Wallace. And, there is nothing that can ever erase the wounds, both physical and emotional, incurred on that fateful and tragic day.”
Hernandez’ charges
Hernandez was then indicted on two charges of manslaughter and two charges of criminally negligent homicide. The state dismissed the counts of criminally negligent homicide.
According to court documents, FJM Concrete LLC, the company that operates the truck Hernandez was driving didn’t finish a full background check on him. Those documents also revealed that Hernandez admitted to using marijuana the night before the crash, cocaine the morning of and only driving on three hours of sleep.
FJM Concrete faces multiple civil lawsuits in relation to the crash. The families of multiple preschool students and teachers who were on the bus are all seeking payments, but their attorneys are concerned that because the law only required FJM to have $500,000 in insurance coverage, there won’t be enough money to help all the victims.