HAYS COUNTY, TEXAS — The superintendent of Hays Consolidated Independent School District is urging the Texas pardons and parole board to deny parole for the concrete truck driver convicted in a 2024 crash that killed a 5-year-old boy on a school bus and a doctoral student in a car behind it. The driver became eligible for parole just seven months into an 18-year sentence.
Jerry Hernandez pleaded guilty in June 2025 to two counts of manslaughter and was sentenced to 18 years in prison in September 2025. His parole eligibility begins April 19, 2026.
The Crash
In March 2024, Hernandez was driving a concrete truck on State Highway 21 when he crossed the center line and slammed into a Hays CISD school bus carrying 44 students and 11 adults returning from a field trip. Five-year-old Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, who was on the bus, died in the crash. Ryan Wallace, 33, a University of Texas doctoral student traveling in a car behind the bus, also died. Dozens of others were injured.
Court records show Hernandez admitted to using cocaine the morning of the crash, smoking marijuana the night before, and getting just three hours of sleep. He also had a history of drug use and a prohibited driving status — something his employer is accused of failing to check before hiring him. Prosecutors originally charged Hernandez with two counts of manslaughter and two counts of criminally negligent homicide. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter. The criminally negligent homicide charges were dismissed. The charge did not include a deadly weapon designation.
The Push to Deny Parole
Hays CISD Superintendent Eric Wright sent a letter to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice opposing parole. “The direct victims and the greater community have barely begun to heal. Classmates who watched Ulises die are still only in the first grade,” Wright wrote. “If he were granted parole at just two years’ time served, it would not be justice at all.”
Hays CISD Chief Communication Officer Tim Savoy echoed that sentiment. “It would be a terrible injustice for this person to be paroled so incredibly soon after getting an 18-year sentence,” Savoy said. “Every time you think about this crash, it brings up those same powerful emotions that you felt the very day of the crash — just trauma, pain, anger, because this is a crash that was completely preventable.”
Savoy stressed that the community and victims have not recovered. “We still have students and staff members that work in our district that were injured physically and emotionally because they were on that bus. They’re not recovered yet, and I know that the families of those who were killed — they’ll never recover,” he said.
Attorneys for Victims Speak Out
Sean Breen, an attorney representing an injured teacher, said early release would send the wrong message to employers. “Being eligible for parole doesn’t mean he will get parole, and he shouldn’t get parole. If they don’t deny it, this just compounds the tragedy, and it sends a message to the employers of Texas who employ awful drivers like Mr. Hernandez that it’s okay — not only do you just get a little slap on the wrist civilly, but criminally, you’re going to get out early too,” Breen said.
Jason Feltoon, attorney representing families of several injured children, said granting parole would undermine the entire sentencing system. “Two years into an 18-year sentence, and we’re already here. A court of law looked at what Jerry Hernandez did, the life he took, the children he traumatized, the families he destroyed, and said 18 years. That wasn’t arbitrary. That was the system working the way it’s supposed to. Granting parole now doesn’t just fail these families — it tells every future jury, every future judge, that the sentences they hand down are just a starting point for negotiation. We can’t allow that,” Feltoon said.
All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
📸 Image(s) used under fair use for news reporting.
