Jerry Hernandez

BASTROP COUNTY — On Friday, March 29, Jerry Hernandez, 42, of Bastrop, was charged with criminally negligent homicide after the bus accident that took the lives of a Hays CISD student and a man from Bastrop.

At approximately 2 p.m. on Friday, March 22, Hernandez was driving a cement truck on Highway 21 in Bastrop County when he crossed the center line and hit a Tom Green Elementary School bus that was traveling back from a field trip at the Capital of Texas Zoo.

Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, 5, and 33-year-old Ryan Wallace, who was driving behind the bus at the time of the accident, were killed, while more than 40 other people sustained various levels of injuries.

According to Sergeant Deon Cockrell with the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), Hernandez was arrested on a warrant for the criminally negligent homicide charge, as well as on an unrelated warrant for bond violation out of Hays County on Friday, March 29. Both warrants were served at his residence in Bastrop and he was “taken into custody without incident.”

According to Hays County court records, Hernandez has a case from 2005 for disregarding a no passing zone. On Jan. 25, 2024, Hernandez was arrested by the U.S. Marshals and booked into the Hays County Jail for assault family violence impeding breath, a third degree felony, and criminal mischief, a class B misdemeanor, stemming from incidents in August 2023 and November 2023, respectively. He was released on $10,000 and $5,000 surety bonds on Jan. 27.

As of 3:58 p.m. on Friday, March 29, the DPS accident report has not been released.