Husband of woman killed in Fort Worth DWI crash recalls wreck details

William Williams can still picture the white pickup truck racing up behind him on I-35 as he passed through Fort Worth with Margaret, his wife of 55 years, on Sept. 27.

They were on their way home to St. Louis after visiting their daughter in San Antonio.

“The guy tried to pass me on the left side,” Williams, 77, said Wednesday in an telephone interview from Missouri. “And he hit the rear end of the car on the driver’s side.”

Williams said his car skidded right, slammed into the far wall. He was uninjured, but Margaret, a 76-year-old a retired data entry clerk, died three days later from blunt force trauma to the chest.

The driver of the white pickup truck, Leonardo Oviedo, 29, was charged with murder in her death, the latest development in a string of legal trouble for the Fort Worth gang member. He also faces a felony DWI-repetition charge stemming from the fatal September crash.

Oviedo has been convicted seven times in Tarrant County since 2004, according to court documents. He was convicted of DWI in 2008 and 2010, and was sentenced to 30 days in each instance.

In 2011, he was sentenced to six years in prison for injuring his elderly father, but was released on supervision in October 2013, said Jason Clark, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

According to court documents, Oviedo instigated a fight outside a party hall early New Year’s Day 2011. When his father and sister tried to break it up, Oviedo threw his sister to the ground multiple times and hit his father in the face, knocking him unconscious, court documents state. His father also suffered a broken arm.

In 2004, when Oviedo was 18, he was convicted on a cruelty to animals charge for causing a dog to kill a cat, according to court documents. He was sentenced to five years’ probation but later violated probation by possessing a prohibited weapon, He was then sentenced to 18 months in jail.

He was also sentenced to nine months in state jail in 2008 for stealing a truck.

Oviedo, who was arrested Monday in connection with Margaret Williams’ death, remained in Tarrant County jail Wednesday with his bail set at $150,000.

On Wednesday, Williams, his wife’s death still fresh in his mind, was relieved to learn Oviedo had been arrested.

“She was a great person,” he said. “Friendly, talkative and kind.”

This story was originally published November 4, 2015 at 3:10 PM with the headline "Husband of woman killed in Fort Worth DWI crash recalls wreck details."