Reduced to Misdemeanor Mid-Trial | State v H.N.

After the first officer testified, the State reduced the case from intoxication Manslaughter to DWI 1st.  Our client was driving home from a party where things were getting out of hand.  He was not from around the area and was using his phone to get him out of a bad situation.  He ran a red light and T-boned a vehicle.  The driver of the car he t-boned died 8 months later from complications from the accident.  The issue was that the decedent was not wearing his seatbelt.  And had he been wearing his seatbelt, he would have survived.  We had a professional engineer ready to testify to that.  We had a police accident investigator, who usually is a State’s witness, to testify to the same.  And an ex-DA who evaluated the case, and was qualified as an accident reconstructionist, also to testify to the same.  In fact, the ex-DA wrote a note to the file that this case should not be an intoxication manslaughter case but rather a DWI.  This ex-DA was let go for political reasons when the new DA took office in 2024.  This ex-DA was a highly decorated and respected DA all over Texas.  Rather than do the right thing, the DAs office marched forward and didn’t even provide me this exculpatory note until I was made aware of it by the ex-DA.  In fact, they went and got him struck as a witness by a visiting Judge.  That’s how bad this new DAs office wants to hide the truth.  But, the truth came out in trial and the honest, rookie officer admitted she didn’t know why she arrested our client.  They all thought that the injuries were minor and should not have resulted in a death.  Thankfully, the honorable DAs on the case got approval to reduce the case.  I mean, the Judge basically let everyone know that the case had huge legal issues and they needed to work it out.  None of the aggressive heads who were trying to push and fight for this case came down and luckily, we had some very reasonable DAs come do the right thing. However, everything our new expert, the ex-DA, had told them all along, came true.  This should never have been an intoxicated manslaughter case because the client did not cause the death.  He caused the accident, but the decedent not wearing his seatbelt ultimately was the cause of the death and assumption of his own risk.  In intoxication manslaughter cases, the intoxicated person must cause the death, not the accident.  Seatbelts are very important and the ex-DA knew that long before.  We are just glad that we had reasonable DAs finally and not the higher ups who were unjustly pushing this case and giving ridiculous prison offers.