SAN ANTONIO – At 20-years-old, Asante Contreras’ life was cut short. He was the victim of a head-on crash involving a driver who was running away from police for violating his bond.
Asante’s mother Anja Contreras blames the justice system for letting her son’s killer walk and for having to bury her son.
“We miss him everyday and that we love him always and we will see him again,” said Anja.
Joseph Woolard, 37, will spend 60 years in prison for crashing head-on with Asante’s vehicle. Woolard pleaded guilty to murder on Friday morning -- a charge stemming from the crash that happened on May 3, 2020.
Woolard had warrants out for his arrest for violating bond when police said they spotted him driving. Officers tried to initiate a traffic stop at Potranco and Waterstone Pl., but Woolard wouldn’t stop his vehicle.
Authorities pursued Woolard until he turned onto an exit ramp for Northeast Loop 410 to Northbound IH-25 into oncoming traffic. It wasn’t long before Woolard’s vehicle struck another car head-on, killing its driver, Asante.
“I don’t think he should have ever been out to begin with. He should have never been out on bond. I’m glad he’s off the street. He won’t hurt anybody else because I don’t think he was ever going to change,” said Anja.
Anja said she doesn’t understand why Woolard was able to make bond after leading deputies on a chase that ended in a shootout in March of 2019. She believes it was a mistake by the justice system that cost her son his life.
She said Asante was just one week away from graduating from UT Health San Antonio’s paramedic school.
He was buried the same day his graduation would have been. Asante had dreams of becoming a paramedic and then an ER physician.
“He had it together and he was going to go places and it breaks my heart that he doesn’t get the chance to do that because he deserved to… he deserved to,” said Anja.