[Banfield:] If you live near a river, it is a summer tradition, grab a tube, fill up a cooler, and go for a float. Unfortunately in San Marcos, Texas, the neighborhoods say it`s also a tradition for people to get in their cars and drive home after all that fun, after they`ve spent a whole day drinking on the river. And one of those people clad only in a bikini was 21-year-old Shana Elliott who had drifted into oncoming traffic and then crashed headfirst into another car. Police say she was so drunk, she was more than twice the legal limit, and that she couldn`t even stand during her field sobriety test. She told the cops that she`d only had a few beers, and that not aware that she had taken two lives.
[Unidentified Male:] Do you remember much about the accident?
[Elliot:] No. It`s really blurry. I just remember as soon as the accident was as soon as the accident happened, I knew that I made the worst decision ever. I remember getting out of my car and me going to other car and making sure they were OK.
[Unidentified Male:] But they weren`t, were they?
[Elliot:] No.
[Jeffrey Boney, Associate Editor, Houston Forward Times:] Well, Shana Elliott, she took the stand on her own behalf, and she seemed to be remorseful about what occurred. Even the defense attorneys were emphasizing the fact that she was remorseful after the accident happened. So in an effort to persuade the jurors, she, you know, basically was trying to go for a relatively lenient sentence for causing this drunken automobile crash that killed, of course Fabian and their unborn son. She you know, the difference between this situation I guess and any other things is she previously pled guilty to these incidents. She knew exactly what she had done, and she had previous run-ins with the law. She`s no stranger to the law. She was accused of possessing heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana back in March of 2016. She was arrested again for possession of heroin two months later in May of 2016. So in this situation she was trying to throw herself at the mercy of the court, but she tended to not be remorseful but other actions that she had done prior to this incident.
[Banfield:] Well, to that end, you know, for anybody who tries to throw their selves throw themselves at the mercy of a jury, it is not an easy thing to do. And if you`re pretending and, you know, shedding crocodile tears, a lot of times they`re smart enough to see right through that, or at least they can feel something`s up. So you be the judge when you hear Shana Elliott as she effectively says to the jury what I did was wrong, and God help me, maybe you could have some mercy. Have a listen.
[Elliot:] I just want to say that I want to say to the victims` family that I`m sorry from the deepest of my heart, and I know that an apology doesn`t do much. You know it but I pray for forgiveness every day. And to the jury, I just hope that you can find it in your hearts. Whatever`s fair for you all, whatever you all punish I accept it because I accept responsibility, and I know what I did was wrong.
[Banfield:] Jeffrey, you you cannot help but feel sorry for people, generally people. But this young woman, it is not her first time at the rodeo. She`d admitted to drinking and driving before. And also she`d been arrested three months prior and then I think five months prior for possession of heroin and methamphetamine and marijuana, and none of that seemed to be a problem. It certainly didn`t mitigate her behavior on the day when Fabian Guerrero Moreno and his unborn baby who was supposed to be named after him, Fabian, died. So, I guess it really just comes down to how the jurors reacted. And that`s always difficult. We don`t get the camera angle. We`re not allowed to watch them. But it`s a hard case look, everybody could put themselves in that position. But for the fact that her blood alcohol level was.199. And that`s nearly double the legal limit which, if you are trying to figure out how you would act if you were.199, and would you make the same mistake, it is described as being in a condition where your behavior is sloppy, you would feel dazed and confused, disoriented. You might need help to stand or walk, maybe that`s why Shana can`t keep her balance when she`s doing her bikini test, field sobriety test. The gag reflexes impaired. You feel like you`re going to vomit. Blackouts are likely at this level, at.199. It doesn`t matter how big you are or how small you are. Everybody at.199 would get this kind of an effect. Is that being discussed in this trial so that jurors know damn well just how drunk she was?
[Boney:] You know, that is being that`s been brought up, but Ashleigh, I think one of the biggest things that the prosecutors brought out in the sentencing phase here, they played recordings of phone calls that Shana made from jail, and in one of the recordings, you hear her talking with her boyfriend, speculating that the victims of the crash were part of the cartel. And in another conversation you hear Shana joking and laughing with her friends about getting her eyebrows threaded in jail just four days after the crash. So I think they brought that information out to really show that the remorse argument that she was trying to present or at least the narrative she was trying to present was not how she was really feeling even after being arrested and being in jail for a few days, and that she really was aware of what she was doing, and this was a part of her overall lifestyle.
[Banfield:] Wow.
[Boney:] And so, yes, they did bring that out. But this was something that`s been...
[Banfield:] Are you kidding holy molly. They played those? Jeffrey, they played those audio recordings of her jailhouse conversations where she`s suggesting that the Fabian Guerrero Moreno and his unborn baby and his wife who`s a widow, who`s in that courtroom, were somehow part of a cartel?
[Boney:] Yes.
[Banfield:] She said those things, and they heard those things?
[Boney:] To hear that recording, and then of course, again, hearing her laughing and joking and being jovial with her friends about getting her eyebrows threaded while she was in jail. I mean, these are the types of things where, you know, the prosecutors, I believe, did a pretty good job of trying to at least in their in their argument to try to show her as a non-remorseful individual who really was aware of what had happened and that this was a part of her everyday lifestyle.
[Banfield:] Wow. That is that`s brutal. That is brutal. Because it is really convenient to feel the way she feels on the stand, you know, when your judgment and those 12 faces are in front of you. But she had no idea probably when she was on that prison call, that jail call, that those 12 faces were going to hear her demeanor while she was awaiting the trial which brings me to Eric Johnson. Eric, that`s basically in legal speak, that sucks.
[Johnson:] Very much so, very much so.
[Banfield:] It sucks, right?
[Johnson:] Yes, it does. Yes, it does.
[Banfield:] Yes. So how much does it suck because she`s facing zero probation effectively all the way up to 50 years. And jurors, they`re no dummies. They`re her peers, right?
[Johnson:] Correct.
[Banfield:] They`re going to be able to make the difference between her jailhouse call and then her performance on the stand.
[Johnson:] I think one of the biggest issues from what I`ve seen about this case is the fact that they had a trial in and of itself. I think that her guilt in this matter was pretty straightforward, so this is something that she may have wanted to take a plea. And the fact that she`s gone through a trial in which the victim has had to sit there and listen through all of these things may something that be taken held against her when it comes time for final sentencing.
[Banfield:] Boy, boy, boy, boy. Boy. Can I just put one more thing on this, just before we wrap this up? I want to hear from her one more time. Because again, I said this wasn`t her first rodeo. I already told you about the drugs. I already told you about the arrests. But then on the stand under cross-examination, she had to admit, yes, she`s been drinking and driving a lot in the past. Have a look.
[Unidentified Male:] Ms. Elliot, you`re a good student, right?
[Elliot:] Yes, sir.
[Unidentified Male:] Pretty smart individual?
[Elliot:] Yes, sir.
[Unidentified Male:] So you were fully aware of the risks of your actions on August 2nd, 2016?
[Elliot:] To an extent.
[Unidentified Male:] You`re saying the risks didn`t seem real to you, is that what you`re saying?
[Elliot:] It seemed real. It did.
[Unidentified Male:] And you disregarded that risk?
[Elliot:] Yes.
[Unidentified Male:] Was this your first time being intoxicated and making the decision to drive?
[Elliot:] No.
[Unidentified Male:] How many times previously had you done that?
[Elliot:] Quite a few, sadly. It`s it`s too common, and that`s what needs to change.
[Unidentified Male:] OK. Is it fair to say that each time before August 2nd, 2016, you were running the risk of this exact result?
[Elliott:] Yes.
[Ashleigh Banfield, Primetime Justice Show Host, Hln:] Yes. Too common, it needs to change. And usually the way it changes is when TV people like me broadcast cases like yours. And you end up in the pokey for a long, long time. And then other people don`t want to end up in the pokey, so they don`t do it. That`s usually how it works. My thanks to Jeffrey Boney and Eric Johnson for that. You ever wonder what it`s like for victims of crimes after the crime? A serial armed robbery suspect holds a gun to a young woman`s head as mom is looking on. He tries to hold up a store, but he didn`t know that those two women, mom and daughter, they`re going to fight back. They`re going to fight back hard. But the bullets fly, and a lot of them fly. And the terror they endured, we`re going to ask that mother what it was like to have to watch the scene play out in front of her where a man held a gun to her daughter`s head and actually pulled the trigger. That`s next.