The 31-year-old man convicted of intoxicated manslaughter for a second time was sentenced to prison Thursday, closing out the family of the deceased’s decade-long fight for justice.
Paul Anthony Garcia was convicted last week of driving into oncoming traffic and striking the vehicle of 24-year-old Destiny Ann Bruce, a Pipe Creek resident, killing her and seriously injuring her 11-year-old sister who was asleep in the backseat.
The true balance of justice hung heavy Thursday evening as people on one side of the courtroom bowed their heads and sobbed while the other side shook hands with the state and congratulated each other in their victory as the jury sentenced Garcia to 15 years in state prison and fined him $10,000.
Garcia was facing 2 to 20 years in prison and received the maximum fine amount for the second-degree felony.
“It’s been 9 years, 7 months and 27 days since Destiny Bruce’s life was abruptly and violently taken from her,” Assistant Criminal District Attorney Manuel Cardenas said in closing. “For 9 years, 7 months and 27 days, she has not had a voice. Nobody has been able to give her a voice until now. I can’t think of a more innocent victim than Destiny. …
“That whole time you’ve got to be thinking for 10 years – for 10 years – this defendant has just been looking forward – looking to the gifts, looking at the joys of life. For 10 years, the Bruces have been looking back. For 10 years they’ve been looking back.”
The incident took place on Sept. 1, 2012.
Cardenas asked for the maximum sentence for Garcia, 20 years, while defense attorney Dante Dominguez sought a 5-year sentence.
Garcia had been found guilty of this charge once before, but the Texas appellate court granted a request for a retrial because a blood draw was performed without a warrant. Garcia’s first guilty verdict was handed down July 7, 2014.
Bruce’s family testified about the impacts of that night, giving heart-wrenching recounts of that fateful evening and the aftermath.
Bruce’s sister took the stand, who is now engaged and expecting her first child, and detailed the traumatizing scene she endured and the grief she feels about being unable to share her major life milestones with her sister.
“I remember waking up in the car and it was flipped some way and I took off my seatbelt and I was standing on glass,” she recalled. “And I remember the motorcycle people driving up and somebody – the man – telling me to close my eyes because he was going to break the windshield to get me out. …
“I was screaming Destiny’s name trying to get her to respond. She was moving, but she couldn’t talk though, and I was screaming for help.”
Next, Bruce’s father described the terrifying scene he arrived to on Highway 46 west of Boerne and the extremely difficult decision he was faced with when both of his daughters were involved in an accident, leaving one dead and another being airlifted to the hospital.
“You have to decide which one is more important,” he said, getting emotional on the stand. “That’s the way it seemed like. Do I go with the one that’s still alive, or do I stay and take care of the one that’s dead? Yeah, that’s a hard decision to make, and that leaves you with a huge amount of guilt. I still feel bad about that. There was nothing I could do. I still feel bad about it.”
The father recalled a first responder on the scene helping him make the unimaginable decision, urging him to stay with the 11-year-old girl still living.
“He said, ‘You need to go take care of the one that’s still alive that may not be alive very long,’” he recalled. “So, I guess my attitude changed, and I went over to pay attention to Grace. …
“I was terrified. She was asking me questions I couldn’t give her the answers to, and I didn’t want to give her. To tell her that Destiny already had passed away because I didn’t know if it would make a difference in how she was because nobody could tell me how she was.”
He remembered a pilot telling him he needed to get off the helicopter before they flew his daughter to the hospital, but he fought back, refusing to leave her side.
He recalled saying, “Then throw him (Garcia) off because he’s the one who caused the wreck. He didn’t seem that hurt because he was crying and making noise and talking to people, and I didn’t care. I don’t care. … I don’t know what they tossed off to the lesson the weight, but they did.”
After Garcia was sentenced, victim impact statements from Bruce’s sister, father and mother were read.
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