Kendall Batchelor, the 22-year-old charged with intoxicated manslaughter in June, was denied bond after her defense attorney sought bond reinstatement.
A revocation of bond was filed by the director of Kendall County pretrial services, Erica O’Neil, on June 23 after Batchelor missed six in-home breathalyzer tests. During a hearing for reinstatement of bond late last month, Batchelor’s defense attorney complained the defense never had an opportunity to be heard on the motion to revoke bond.
On that note, 451st District Court Judge Kirsten Cohoon opted to conduct a hearing that day, denying Batchelor’s request for bond after Assistant District Attorney Manuel Cardenas argued Batchelor was a flight risk.
O’Neil and pretrial services staffer Jasmin Scott testified during the hearing. Records stated O’Neil testified that Batchelor failed to perform the in-home breathalyzer tests. Scott testified that Batchelor’s father – owner of a notable luxury car dealership in San Antonio, Ken Batchelor Cadillac – and a woman representing herself as Batchelor’s “caretaker” came to Scott concerned that Batchelor would flee after withdrawing a substantial amount of money.
Scott testified she never in her career has had a parent report his or her child as a flight risk.
Batchelor was arrested and booked into the Bexar County Jail on June 6 on a warrant signed by Kendall County Precinct 3 Justice of the Peace Debby Hudson, which alleges Batchelor had a blood-alcohol level of .166 – more than double the legal limit – when she drove into oncoming traffic east of Boerne on Highway 46 at 9:50 p.m. June 2, hitting Boerne resident David John Belter’s vehicle head-on. Belter was pronounced dead at the scene.
Batchelor initially was booked into the Bexar County Jail from her hospital room in June before being transferred to the jail upon medical release. And, although Hudson’s warrant was marked “no bond,” a magistrate judge out of Bexar County released Batchelor on a $120,000 bail, records show.
However, she remained out of jail for only two weeks. Batchelor was arrested again in Kendall County by local deputies after the motion to revoke her bond was filed, records showed.
Cohoon ultimately denied the motion to reinstate bond or to set a new bond amount, citing both Batchelor’s previous bond violations and her flight-risk status. However, Cohoon said she would reconsider setting bond if the defense brought back information about transferring Batchelor to a locked-down treatment facility after Batchelor’s attorney presented a mental health evaluation from Dr. Margo De la Garza, according to information from the district attorney’s office.
The doctor diagnosed Batchelor with post-traumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. Further, a letter from Brian Samford, the executive director of The Arbor Behavioral Healthcare in Georgetown, said Batchelor suffered from a substance use disorder involving alcohol and marijuana which combined with her other mental health issues warranted a 90-day treatment program with the facility.
The letter states Batchelor’s PTSD diagnosis is directly tied to the murder of her mother. Batchelor’s mother, Martha Batchelor, was violently murdered in her San Antonio apartment in 2013. Her killer never was formally arrested nor charged.
At this time, Batchelor remains in the custody of the county, but she is being housed at a Kerr County jail.
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