A Texas woman has been sentenced to two years in prison after allowing her intoxicated 14-year-old son to drive her car, resulting in the death of a 67-year-old bicyclist. Erika Martinez-Ramirez was convicted of endangering a child in McLennan County. The crash occurred in Bellmead, near Waco, in July 2024.
Erika Martinez-Ramirez handed her car keys to her 14-year-old son around 1:30 a.m. on July 14, 2024, in Bellmead, instructing him to drive his 10-year-old sister to a nearby house for clothes. The boy, who lacked a driver's license and was intoxicated, struck bicyclist Dennis Welch, 67, who died at the scene, before crashing into a house. The girl sustained minor injuries, according to the McLennan County District Attorney's Office. Prosecutors noted this was not the boy's first time driving illegally. On December 12, 2023, police stopped him driving the mother's car with other children, citing Martinez-Ramirez. Two weeks later, he hit another vehicle and fled; officers warned her against allowing it. Martinez-Ramirez was convicted Tuesday of endangering a child and sentenced to two years, the maximum. Officials pursued this charge over criminally negligent homicide, as both carry the same penalty but endangering was easier to prove without evidence she knew of her son's intoxication. Assistant District Attorneys Michaelina Yearty and Duncan Widmann stated, '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.'