by Moses Leos III
The Kyle Police Department Thursday arrested Wilson Rene Molinares, the wrong-way driver in a fatal Feb. 19 accident on Interstate 35 that killed four people, on four charges of manlaughter, which is a second degree felony.
According to a city of Kyle press release, Molinares, 22, was arraigned following his arrest by Hays County Precinct No. 2 Justice of the Peace Judge Beth Smith, who signed arrest warrants for Molinares on Feb. 22.
Smith set Molinares’ bail at a total of $1 million. Molinares is now in the custody of the Hays County Sheriff’s Office.
Kyle Police Chief Jeff Barnett said in the release the department was unable to immedately execute the four arrest warrants because of Molinares’ medical condition.
Barnett said the department needed time to coordinate the execution of the warrants, taking into account his medical condition and the “ability to conduct the book-in and subsequent arraignment process.”
Molinares’ arrest comes nearly two weeks after the accident that claimed the lives of two men, one woman and a toddler from Ontario, Canada.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Kyle Police officer James Jones responded to the area of IH-35 northbound near mile marker 216 at 1:10 a.m. Feb. 19.
Kyle Police dispatch advised Jones of a small passenger car driving southbound in the northbound lanes of traffic.
While en route to the area, dispatch informed Jones the small passenger car, later found to be a Honda Civic driven by Molinares, had crashed into a minivan. Both cars had flipped over, according to the affidavit.
As Jones made his way to the scene, he observed a white Ford F-150 pickup truck run into the minivan, later found to be a Ford Windstar, that was upside down near mile marker 215. The Civic was roughly 300 feet south of the minivan.
The driver of the truck, identified as Luke Barone, told Jones he attempted to swerve to avoid the Civic and debris on the road and didn’t see the Windstar until it was “too late.”
Jones then discovered a young girl that was hanging from a seatbelt through the side window of the Windstar. The child was screaming and moving around, according to affidavit. Jones cut the seatbelt that was wrapped around the child and removed her from the vehicle. A second child was extracated from the Windstar. Both children were transported to Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin.
Emergency officials then discovered four people that were killed in the accident. Smith pronounced all four persons deceased. They were identified as Gerhard Hiebert Peters, 30, Margaretha Wall Hildenbrandt, 27, Heinrich Martens 30. and 16 month old Jacob Wall Hiebert.
Authorities discovered Molinares in the Civic seatbelted in the driver’s seat. The vehicle, according to the affidavit, had severe front end damage on the driver’s side and rear end damage. Wilson had to be extracated from the vehicle and was transported to Brackenridge Hospital in Austin.
On Feb. 22, Jones viewed survaillance video provided to police by Travis Mitchell, who is the owner of Mitchell Motor Sports. Mitchell informed police on Feb. 19 he had video of the accident.
According to the affidavit, Jones observed the Civic driving southbound in the northbound lanes of the highway at the “high rate of speed” and that the vehicle collided with the Windstar head-on.