SAN ANTONIO – The jury in Jenny Ybarra's intoxication manslaughter watched as her defense attorney showed her before and after photographs of the victim, 23-year-old Erica Smith.
Roy Barrera Jr., her defense attorney, asked, "She was a beautiful girl, wasn't she?"
"Yes, very beautiful," Ybarra sobbed on the stand.
However, Ybarra broke down further when Barrera showed her graphic photos of Smith's massive head trauma sustained in the near head-on collision on Loop 410 near Rigsby in December 2007.
"It was a horrific injury," Barrera said.
Ybarra earlier testified she had not been out with friends since the break-up of her marriage and the birth of her daughter.
"The plan was to be with my friends and spend the night," she said.
However, after getting ready for bed at her friend's home, Ybarra said she decided to drive back to Seguin, despite having four drinks that night at two downtown bars.
She said she felt guilty about leaving her baby with her mother.
"I shouldn't have left her. I was worried about her," she said.
Ybarra testified she got lost driving back to Seguin and that's how she ended up going the wrong way on Loop 410.
Although Ybarra told an SAPD officer at the scene her vehicle had been hit by a "car going crazy," she testified Friday, "It was my fault."
Later at the hospital, Ybarra said she told her mother, "I want to die."
Testimony resumes Monday as the trial begins to wrap up. District Judge Lori Valenzuela already has asked the jury to be available through next Wednesday.
If the jury convicts Ybarra, she faces up to 20 years in prison.