| When his eyes are closed, Bob Jones says, he still sees his wife, Judy - JJ to those who knew her.
Jones, of Simonton, lost his wife one year ago today. She was hit and killed by a flatbed commercial truck as she stood on a sidewalk near her business, JJ's Stuff N Such, an antiques store in Wallis.
Jones' pain, and the anguish of his children, runs deep, and each has had considerable difficulty coping with the loss of Judy, 62. But he said their pain and anger grew when the family discovered that the truck driver would not face any criminal prosecution.
Silvio Henao, 57, of Richmond, was no-billed by an Austin County grand jury in December. Whether he faces any traffic violation charges now would be up to the Wallis Police Department, said Austin County Criminal District Attorney Travis J. Koehn. A police officer from Wallis said no charges would be forthcoming.
Koehn said the wreck did not meet one of the four standards, or culpable mental states, for criminal prosecution under the "Requirement of Culpability" in the state penal code - intentional conduct, knowledge of the conduct, recklessness or criminal negligence. The grand jury decided that Henao did not meet any of these requirements.
The accident
On the afternoon of Aug. 17, 2006, Henao was driving a Bison Building Materials Ltd. delivery truck south on Highway 36, while a Wallis police officer was on the side of the road watching traffic, Koehn said. Haneo's truck moved over to the right lane and then "somehow jumps onto the sidewalk and basically careens down the sidewalk, doing a bunch of damage and running over Ms. Jones, who I understood was standing down toward the end of the block," Koehn said.
Judy Jones was hit and killed. Nobody else was injured. Buildings sustained thousands of dollars in damages.
Jeff Diamant, attorney for Henao and Bison, said Henao still works for the company and is a longtime employee in good standing. He said Henao and the company express the deepest condolences to Jones' family.
"It has been a tremendous blow to everybody," said Diamant, who's based in Houston.
Henao does not know how the wreck occurred and has no recollection of it, said Diamant. Henao actually blacked out from the time before he left the roadway to the time he came to a stop, the attorney said, pointing out that since the accident Henao has been diagnosed with benign brain tumors.
Diamant said he is trying to determine more about the medical aspects of the investigation.
Henao was not speeding - he was actually driving a few miles per hour under the speed limit, Diamant said, and his truck was not known to be defective.
The investigation
District Attorney Koehn said local law enforcement investigates matters such as this, sending reports to his office. Koehn does not have any investigators of his own.
Koehn said he was not privy to why the grand jury decided to no-bill Henao.
"My understanding from the investigation is that there was no evidence of any alcohol or any kind of drugs in his system that would cause him to lose control," Koehn said. "There was no evidence of him driving crazy ahead of time or anything like that. It's unknown why it actually happened. I think the (wreck reconstruction) expert said that a zone of preventability (existed) ... and he said that the driver could have prevented the accident, and that's possible. But there's no evidence to show that he intentionally or knowingly caused or tried to kill Ms. Jones, whether he did it recklessly or whether he did it with negligence."
Evidence showed the truck experienced no mechanical failure and had a good maintenance record, and Henao had a good driving record, Koehn said.
"They said there was some severe damage done to the vehicle once it jumped up on the sidewalk, and I'm not sure if that was a factor in preventing him from getting off," Koehn said. "That was one theory that was floating, but I don't know. There was a lot of damage done to the vehicle, as I understand it."
And to a whole block of buildings, actually. But it would be "very hard to prove whether once the accident started, could he have not traveled so far, that I don't know, but it would be hard, I think, to show a criminal intent on his part once that accident started."
The findings were presented to the grand jury because, in these types of situations, Koehn said he wants a grand jury to review the case and determine whether his office has missed anything.
Reconstruction expert Joe Hinton of Houston, Bob Jones and Wallis Police Officer R.F. Griffin testified before the grand jury.
A grand jury cannot divulge what happens during deliberations - not even to the district attorney himself.
Closed case
With that, Koehn said the Judy Jones case is considered closed unless some new evidence emerges.
"Typically, in these kind of situations, the officers do not write failure to control speed tickets because it involves a major case in the sense that it's going to be looked at by the grand jury or my office," he said.
He pointed out, though, that the police could still write a ticket, but that would be handled in the municipal court in Wallis.
"We think a citation at this point is moot cause," said Griffin, who investigated the wreck. "That's why we referred everything to the grand jury."
Griffin said because of the nature of the wreck, the ongoing investigation was referred to the district attorney's office.
Ultimately, Koehn said, his office has to look at a case, examine the criminal law and determine what evidence can be proved beyond a reasonable doubt when heard by a jury.
"This is just one of those cases where there's no evidence of a criminal case," he said.
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