Luis Torres, just a teenager when he drunkenly wrecked head-on into a Beaumont police cruiser while driving the wrong way on the freeway in August 2020, was sentenced this week to a concurrent sentence for seriously injuring an officer in the melee that ensued. Torres had previously been sentenced to serve 20 years in prison for the death of Beaumont Police Officer Sheena Yarbrough-Powell, who was killed in the same DUI collision, along with the rescue kitten she picked up on the late-night shift she was working that evening.
According to evidence presented in the trial against the accused, Torres had been drinking excessively the evening he drove his vehicle and crashed it into the police car occupied by Yarbrough-Powell and fellow officer Gabriel Fells. During the trial, it was revealed that Torres not only drank alcohol – tequila – served to him at the former Tequila’s restaurant in Port Arthur, but he also purchased more booze from a convenience store and hit up not one – but two – parties that served him alcohol before getting in the car his father bought him and driving the wrong way up the interstate. Evidence in the trial also revealed that Torres didn’t have a driver’s license at the time of the crash.
“I don’t remember how many broken ribs,” were incurred, Fells said of his own injuries from the witness stand during Torres’ prosecution. The agony of his injuries and the state of his partner’s wellbeing filled his mind as he held on the phone with emergency responders, evidenced by the several excruciating minutes of footage presented the first day of Torres’ trial. After the crash, “is fuzzy,” he further explained.
Jurors found Torres guilty of “intoxication manslaughter causing the death of a peace officer” and sentenced him to serve 20 years in a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison for Yarbrough-Powell’s death, the now 20-year-old being required to serve at least half of the sentence before becoming eligible for parole. Torres was facing between 5 – 99 years, or life, in prison, and any prison sentence under 10 years could’ve been probated due to this being Torres’ first felony. On the table was also a fine of up to $10,000.
“If I could switch places with her, I would,” Torres said before his sentencing. “I tell myself every day; ‘It should have been you, not her.’”
Standing before Jefferson County Criminal District Court Judge John Stevens on March 20, Torres pleaded guilty to causing Officer Fells’ injuries. In exchange, Torres was handed down the a similar sentence as before – 20 years confinement in prison, which will run concurrent, with credit given for time already served in jail.
— Jennifer Johnson, Managing Editor