A mountain of evidence presented against Kendall Batchelor during her trial on a charge of intoxication manslaughter resulted in a jury handing down the maximum sentence: 20 years behind bars and a $10,000 fine.
The sentence was read to Batchelor, the daughter of luxury vehicle dealer Ken Batchelor, Wednesday evening after several hours of deliberation.
That same jury convicted the 23 year old of the second-de- gree felony after less than an hour of deliberation on May 22.
According to prosecutors, on June 2, Batchelor got drunk and drove her Ford F-250 down Texas 46. Just before 10 p.m., her vehicle plowed into a sedan driven by longtime Boerne resident David John Belter, 48, killing him.
Kendall County assistant district attorneys Gretchen Flader and Manuel Cardenas called on 60 witnesses between the verdict and sentencing phase, marking the most testimony presented in a single trial in the 451st state District Court’s short existence.
The two lawyers presented more than 500 images and hours of video detailing Batchelor ’s checkered past, showing a history of drinking and driving since she was a teenager.
“You’re going to learn this defendant had a good time with drugs and alcohol,” Cardenas told the jury in his opening statements. “You’re going to learn this defendant enjoys partying. Does (post-traumatic stress disorder) give you a license to kill David Belter? Does PTSD give you a license to have no regard for the people around you?”
Criminal history
Among the hundreds of images prosecutors showed the jury were Batchelor’s social-media posts over eight years.
“Ain’t even halfway done,” she captioned one Snapchat photo of her auto’s passenger-side floor filled with empty beer cans.
The state’s presentation to the jury lasted hours and showed Batchelor drinking – both in and out of vehicles – and smoking marijuana.
“Here is a picture of all the people that care about me,” she wrote across an image of a large bag of suspected marijuana.
She also shared images of her blood-alcohol level from a home breathalyzer with readings of .46% and .23%. The Texas legal limit for BAC is .08%.
Batchelor had her first run-in with law enforcement in 2015 when she was only 14 or 15, the jury heard.
In 2015, while on a boat in Horseshoe Bay – a portion of Lake LBJ dotted by high-dollar homes, marinas and town houses – Batchelor and her then 17- year- old boyfriend were caught with an ice chest full of beer; she was issued a citation for minor in possession.
Batchelor would be cited for lugging booze around four more times before she turned 21, according to evidence.
A year later in March, when Batchelor was 16, she was stopped by Department of Public Safety Trooper Allen Meyer.
Meyer first crossed paths with Batchelor after he spotted her racing and driving recklessly down 46, he testified. He was in his personal vehicle when he attempted to stop Batchelor and a friend, but the teen – whose lifted truck had pink wheels and a vanity license plate – sped away.
“I don’t usually get involved when off-duty because it becomes a lot of trouble,” Meyer told the court. “But because it was so dangerous, I had to do something.”
It wasn’t until several days later that Meyer would come into contact with Batchelor again after the same vehicle was reported driving erratically at Boerne Lake.
When he arrived at the traffic stop to talk to the driver, he met Batchelor with the hope of setting her on a better path.
“In my experience, I’ve had a lot of contact with teenage drivers in the past,” Meyer said in court. “A few times, they ended up badly. … So, I try to be proactive. Even if just to chew them out, sometimes it’s enough to tell them, ‘You need to stop.’” Although she at first tried to deny she had alcohol in the truck while skipping school that day, Meyer eventually got the information from her, the trooper testified.
Prosecutors pulled up a photo of seven bottles of liquor pulled from various areas of Batchelor’s pickup displayed on the hood of Meyer’s patrol vehicle.
The law officer indicated he tried to scare her straight.
“The next thing we’re going to see is you flipped over in a ditch somewhere or you run someone over,” Meyer warned Batchelor that day in March 2016. “You’re going to kill someone else on the road or end up in a ditch somewhere. It’s a pattern, and it never fails.”
In April 2017, Batchelor was partying in an apartment complex near the University of Texas at San Antonio when officers raided the residence looking for suspected narcotics.
“When we made entry, there was a lot of narcotics all throughout the apartment in different locations, and it looked like there was some kind of party or gathering going on,” a Bexar County sheriff’s lieutenant testified.
In all, investigators during the bust seized 64.7 grams of cocaine, 1,078.7 grams – 2 pounds and 6 ounces – of marijuana, two firearms and $4,220 in cash.
Batchelor was cuffed and detained, but no charges were leveled against her.
“There was no affirmative link of the narcotics to her, and she was not charged,” the deputy said. “Since she was a minor, we did call her parents to have them come pick her up.”
Batchelor was 17. In 2018, Batchelor was charged with drunk driving after a night of partying in Luckenbach with a group of friends ranging in age from 14 to 21, the jurors heard. Batchelor was 18.
Parker Strange, who said he was about 17 at the time, was along for the ride.
While he drove his own truck there, he realized after a night of drinking that he didn’t feel comfortable navigating the long trek back to Boerne.
“There was a quick decision in the period of us leaving Luckenbach, and we finally said, ‘Hey, I think the women should drive.’ They were older at the time,” he testified.
When one of Batchelor’s friends was pulled over on Adler Road upon returning to town, Batchelor — who had reached FM 474 — turned back to check on her friend.
Officers quickly blocked the truck Batchelor was driving and began to question her.
She failed a field sobriety test and was taken to the Kendall County Jail; prosecutors played footage of her booking.
“I had a little bit of alcohol but not enough to be here,” Batchelor told the booking officer when asked if she was under the influence of any alcohol or drugs. “My dad is going to kill me.”
Her BAC was higher than .20.
Later that year, on Dec. 23, 2018, Batchelor flipped and abandoned her truck on her street, prosecutors said.
Noah Viella was driving to work at around 4:30 a.m. that day when he saw lights on his road. Upon closer inspection, it was Batchelor’s truck – which he recognized as his neighbor – on its side still running.
San Antonio Police Officer Michael Fisher did not find any indication that alcohol was involved after going to Batchelor’s home several hours later, he told the court.
“If I remember correctly, there was a new truck in the driveway before the water line was fixed,” Viella said, noting Batchelor had damaged a water line on the street during her accident.
In December 2021, Batchelor was charged with the state jail felony of failing to stop after an accident.
Her vehicle struck two other autos on Oak Park Drive in town, pushing them up a curb, over a sidewalk and into the lawn of town houses.
Kennedy Jones owned one of those vehicles and quickly followed Batchelor, who continued to drive down the street, spraying oil on other cars she passed by and turned off on Herff Road, according to Jones’ testimony.
“I basically just followed the truck to get the license plate and figure out who it was,” Jones said on the stand.
She testified Batchelor was clearly intoxicated, but responding officers did not get a warrant for a blood draw – something they would later say they regretted.
Batchelor was taken to Methodist ER Boerne by ambulance after complaining of pain affecting her jaw and face, but officers testified they assumed the hospital would draw blood and test for alcohol and drugs.
DEFENSE
Batchelor’s defense attorney, Louis D. Martinez, called on her adoptive mother, Sharon Batchelor, to testify.
Sharon married Batchelor’s father in 2008 and adopted Batchelor in 2014.
Sharon Batchelor said she was not allowed to discipline the defendant as she was growing up, and added she didn’t always agree with how the daughter was raised.
“I think that – because Ken (Batchelor) did everything from his heart and for Kendall, and he did not see the big picture, he wanted whatever she wanted. Right or wrong,” she said. “This situation was abnormal because it was always Ken and Kendall and then me.”
The wife detailed for the court a childhood where Kendall Batchelor was never told no by her father, saying the young woman wrecked several vehicles while in high school. These were instantly replaced with little to no repercussions, the stepmother added.
“I was very concerned. I was concerned for both Ken and Kendall,” she testified. “He enabled her always. That was him showing his love for Kendall.”
Using this testimony, Martinez called on Dr. Frank Chen, the owner of a concierge treatment facility, and through Chen’s testimony, walked through an explanation of Batchelor’s behavior that mirrored the infamous affluenza argument tendered during Ethan Couch’s 2013 intoxicated manslaughter charge.
Couch received a 10-year probated sentence after killing four people while driving drunk. He later fled the country with his mother after violating the terms of probation.
In legal circles, the affluenza defense maintains that wealthy parents cushion or shield their children so much the offspring does not understand the consequences of his or her actions.
The argument failed to sway the jury of seven men and five women, which handed down the maximum sentence to Batchelor.
— Kendall County Assistant District Attorney Manuel Cardenas
Comment
Comments