A vehicle driven by an 18-year-old woman crashed through the wall of a home in Stephenville, Texas, killing a 49-year-old mother and her 7-year-old son who were sleeping in their bedroom, authorities said. Gracie Yates faces two counts of criminally negligent homicide, according to Erath County jail records. The incident occurred in the early morning hours of Sunday on the 200 block of North Ollie Street.
In the early morning hours of Sunday, Barbara Rocha, 49, and her son Alex Aaron Rocha, 7, were in their bedroom on the 200 block of North Ollie Street in Stephenville, Texas—about 100 miles southwest of Dallas—when a vehicle left the roadway and smashed through the wall of their home, the Stephenville Police Department stated in a news release. The mother and son were rushed to a local hospital but succumbed to their injuries there. Family members identified the victims to regional Fox affiliate KDFW. > 'All I heard is a crash, I went in the room, and all you can hear is my little brother screaming and my mom praying,' Raul Rocha, an older brother of Alex, recounted what another brother who lived at the home had told him. 'That's what he said … I have that stuck in the back of my head right now.' Gracie Yates, 18, is accused of driving the vehicle, which police reports indicate had no other occupants. She was booked into Erath County Jail on Sunday, with a judge setting her bond at $14,500. Yates was released on Tuesday, jail records show. A GoFundMe set up by a friend of Barbara Rocha's husband described the driver as drunk but crashed through the house, though the police release made no mention of alcohol or drugs. The fundraiser seeks help for the husband, who is now homeless and covering funeral costs while needing temporary housing.
