Texas doesn’t have a crime called vehicular manslaughter. When someone dies in a crash, the State chooses from four charges: intoxication manslaughter if it says you were intoxicated, manslaughter if it says you were reckless, criminally negligent homicide if it says you should have seen the risk and didn’t, or racing causing death. Most of them are second-degree felonies carrying 2 to 20 years in prison. Which one gets filed, and whether the judgment says your car was a deadly weapon, decides what kind of probation, if any, is on the table. Call (713) 664-4000 for a free consultation.
Someone is gone, and a family is grieving. You’re probably replaying those few seconds every waking minute. Nothing we do changes that, and we won’t pretend it does. But a death doesn’t prove a crime. The State still has to prove what was going on in your head (or in your blood) and that it caused the crash. Don’t talk to the police or the other side’s insurance company about what happened until you’ve talked to us. Jay Blass Cohen is a Houston criminal defense lawyer who founded Blass Law in 2009, and fatal crash cases are where his forensic training matters most.
The charges after a fatal crash in Texas
| Charge | Level | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Intoxication manslaughter: driving intoxicated in a public place and, because of the intoxication, causing a death by accident or mistake | Second-degree felony (Penal Code § 49.08) | 2 to 20 years in prison, up to a $10,000 fine |
| Intoxication manslaughter where the person killed was an on-duty peace officer, judge, firefighter or EMS worker | First-degree felony (§ 49.09(b-2)) | 5 to 99 years or life, up to a $10,000 fine |
| Manslaughter: recklessly causing a death | Second-degree felony (§ 19.04) | 2 to 20 years in prison, up to a $10,000 fine |
| Criminally negligent homicide: causing a death through criminal negligence | State jail felony (§ 19.05) | 180 days to 2 years in state jail, up to a $10,000 fine |
| Criminally negligent homicide with a deadly weapon finding | Punished as a third-degree felony (§ 12.35(c)(1)) | 2 to 10 years in prison, up to a $10,000 fine |
| Racing on a highway where someone suffered serious bodily injury or death | Second-degree felony (Transportation Code § 545.420(h)) | 2 to 20 years in prison, up to a $10,000 fine |
The line between manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide is about awareness. Reckless means you saw a substantial and unjustifiable risk and consciously ignored it. Criminally negligent means you ought to have seen it and didn’t (§ 6.03(c), (d)). Both require a gross deviation from what an ordinary person would do. A normal driving mistake isn’t either one. Intoxication manslaughter is different: the State doesn’t have to prove any mental state at all (§ 49.11). It has to prove you were intoxicated, meaning a 0.08 or higher or not having the normal use of your mental or physical faculties (§ 49.01(2)), and that the intoxication caused the death. Our intoxication manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide pages go deeper on each.
The deadly weapon finding
In almost every fatal crash case, prosecutors ask for a finding that the car was a deadly weapon. A car counts if, in the way it was used, it was capable of causing death or serious bodily injury (§ 1.07(a)(17)(B)), and after a death that isn’t a hard argument for them. A judge can’t give you probation after a conviction (Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 42A.054(b), (c)). A jury still can, if you’ve never been convicted of a felony and it sets the sentence at 10 years or less (Arts. 42A.055, 42A.056). If you go to prison, you aren’t eligible for parole until you’ve served half the sentence or 30 years, whichever is less (never less than two years), with no credit for good time (Gov’t Code § 508.145(d)), and you can’t be released to mandatory supervision (§ 508.149(a)(1)).
A judge can still grant deferred adjudication on manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide, and a completed deferred leaves no conviction for a finding to attach to. On intoxication manslaughter, deferred isn’t available from a judge at all (Art. 42A.102(b)(1)(A)). Whether that finding goes in the judgment is often what we’re really negotiating.
Probation on intoxication manslaughter starts with 120 days locked up
Even when probation is granted on an intoxication manslaughter conviction, Texas law requires at least 120 days of confinement as a condition of it (Art. 42A.401(a)(5)). If the probation is later revoked, those days don’t count toward the prison sentence (Art. 42A.401(b)). The judge also has to order a drug and alcohol evaluation (Art. 42A.402), and a judge can’t end the probation early (Art. 42A.701(g)). Our page on who is eligible for probation in Texas has more.
What the State has to prove: causation
Every one of these charges requires the State to prove you caused the death. Texas uses a but-for test, and another cause doesn’t get you off the hook unless that other cause was clearly enough by itself to produce the death and your conduct was clearly not enough (§ 6.04(a)). On intoxication manslaughter, the death also has to happen because of the intoxication, not just while you were intoxicated. A driver who blows a red light into your path, or a pedestrian no driver could have seen in time, can make that a real fight. A blood result doesn’t answer it.
How we defend a fatal crash case
Accident reconstruction. The police reconstruction is the State’s theory. Our own reconstructionist checks the scene measurements, the skid and yaw marks, the crush damage and the final rest positions against what the report concludes.
The cars’ own data. The airbag control module in most vehicles records speed and braking in the seconds before impact. We get it from every car involved, because the other vehicle’s numbers can change the whole story.
The blood evidence. After a fatal crash, Texas law requires the officer to take blood if you refuse (Transportation Code § 724.012(a-1)), but the draw still has to satisfy the Constitution. Jay is an ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientist and is trained in forensic chromatography. Hospital labs often measure alcohol in serum or plasma instead of whole blood, and that number runs higher than the whole-blood figure a crime lab reports, so the two can’t be compared straight across. A drug showing up in your blood isn’t proof it impaired you. We pull the lab’s raw data and go through it line by line.
Sight lines and the other driver. Signal timing, a curve that hides traffic, lighting and perception-reaction time all go to whether this was a crime or a tragedy.
Racing cases turn on the same evidence. We got two counts of racing causing serious bodily injury dismissed in Harris County after a client was accused of drag racing motorcycles on a busy street in a crash that killed one rider and seriously injured three others, including our client. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. See more of our case results.
Fatal crash questions we hear
What if they found a prescription drug in my blood?
Having a prescription isn’t a defense (§ 49.10). But the State still has to prove the drug took away the normal use of your faculties and that it caused the crash. Presence isn’t impairment.
Should I give a statement to the police?
No. Investigators decide between charges based on what you say about your speed and your drinking. Call us first.
Related charges
See our pages on aggravated assault with a motor vehicle, hit and run, reckless driving and deadly conduct.
Charged after a fatal crash in Houston? Call Blass Law
Jay Blass Cohen founded Blass Law in 2009 and has never worked for the prosecution. We’ll lock down the car data and the scene evidence before they’re gone, and we’ll tell you what the State can actually prove. Call (713) 664-4000 or fill out the form on this page. If the crash was this week, call today. The cars won’t sit in the tow yard forever.