SAN ANTONIO – A man was sentenced to more than a decade behind bars on Monday for a crash that killed a passenger last year on the West Side, the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
Arthur Hugo Ruiz, 29, was intoxicated when he drove his Chevrolet Silverado truck past a stop sign and collided with a Nissan Sentra sedan with two people inside, according to the San Antonio Police Department.
The crash occurred just past midnight on March 8, 2025, at the intersection of West Travis and Northwest 24th streets, near West Commerce Street.
The passenger in the Nissan, identified as Victor Manuel Zarate-Avila, 24, was ejected from the vehicle and died as a result of the crash, the Bexar County Medical Examiner ruled.
Ruiz fled on foot, but was arrested by authorities a few blocks away from the crash, an SAPD preliminary report previously said. Ruiz admitted to police that he was driving intoxicated and was booked into the Bexar County Adult Detention Center the same day.
More than one year after the fatal crash, Ruiz was sentenced to 12 years in prison for intoxication manslaughter with a deadly weapon, the district attorney’s office said.
The driver of the Nissan was also sentenced 12 years in prison, but for “failing to stop and render aid” according to the district attorney’s office.
Like Ruiz, SAPD said Juan Escalante Linares, 29, driver of the Nissan, fled the scene after the car accident.
He would turn himself in three days after the collision, according to the district attorney’s office, and was booked into the Bexar County jail on March 11, 2025.
He was charged with collision involving death on Dec. 1, 2025, jail records show.
Linares spent just over 10 months behind bars before he was released on January 15 of this year.
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