Mario Rodriguez-Hernandez turned 22 on May 19.
He spent his birthday in the Travis County jail. He’s been there a month and a half after investigators say he caused the crash that killed three motorcyclists. Police say Rodriguez-Hernandez had a blood alcohol level of almost twice the legal limit, and it wasn’t the first DWI arrest for the man who’s been in this country illegally. It was early Sunday morning, April 5 — APD investigators worked an accident scene in Central East Austin. Witnesses told police a pickup truck — traveling westbound in the 4200 block of East MLK near Springdale — crossed the double yellow line, sideswiped a car and then collided into a group of motorcyclists in Austin for a charity event. A couple of hours later, in Houston, Anika Lee was awakened by a phone call that would forever change her life. “I kind of just sat around for a minute like no, not my sister,” she said. Lee’s sister, 38-year-old Audra Britt, was in critical condition after the crash. She had been riding on the back of the motorcycle driven by her husband, 36-year-old Maurice Britt — a technical sergeant at Lackland Air Force base in San Antonio. Maurice was killed immediately. Lee rushed from Houston to Austin so she could be at her sister’s bedside at Brackenridge Hospital. “When I went in and saw her I just started crying because it wasn’t her. She’s always like the life of the party type person and for her to just being laying still like that, it wasn’t my sister,” she said, while starting to cry. Lee and her family would stay and pray in Austin for the next six days. During that time, they learned from investigators the man who caused the accident, Rodriguez-Hernandez– who was 21 at the time of the crash and who is in this country illegally — had a blood alcohol level of .13 some five hours after the accident.
Court records show he had a previous DWI arrest in 2006. He was later convicted of misdemeanor DWI.