Victims upset with plea deal in Forest Hill fatal wreck

Two survivors of a drunken driving wreck that killed their relatives in Forest Hill expressed anger Tuesday over a plea deal with the motorist.

Jose Salinas-Gomez, 24, of Winter Haven, Fla., was sentenced Friday afternoon to 10 years each on two counts of intoxication manslaughter and two counts of intoxication assault in connection with the November wreck. The sentences will be served concurrently.

George Moon, 76, and his wife, Beverly Gayle Moon, 63, of Forest Hill were killed in the wreck. Carrie Hoskins and her adult daughter were injured.

“I am still upset and angry about the deal,” Hoskins said Tuesday in a telephone interview. “The court failed us.”

Because he had no previous convictions, Salinas-Gomez could be eligible for shock probation after serving six months with a clean record in prison, Hoskins said. In shock probation, a judge temporarily sends a defendant to prison or jail, then returns the defendant to court and sentences him or her to community supervision.

“In each situation, we make every attempt to work closely with the family members as we determine the best resolution within the parameters of the law, based on the circumstances of the case,” said Sam Jordan, a spokeswoman with the Tarrant County district attorney’s office.

Initially, Hoskins agreed with the plea deal. She said she was told Salinas-Gomez would get 10 years for her uncle’s death and 10 years for her aunt’s death, and she thought it was a 20-year sentence.

But Hoskins was livid when she was told the intoxication manslaughter sentences would be served at the same time.

On Friday afternoon, Salinas-Gomez showed no emotion in a Fort Worth courtroom as adult daughters of George and Gayle Moon said in victims’ statements that they forgave him for causing the wreck and believed that he didn’t intend to kill the couple.

But Steven Hoskins, who read a victim’s statement from his wife, Carrie Hoskins, and her daughter, told Salinas-Gomez that he was a “menace to the public.”

“What on God’s green earth would possess you to drive under the influence, and at such an outrageous speed, through a residential neighborhood, and on Halloween night, of all nights,” Steven Hoskins read. “These consequences are the direct result of your foolishness, and your reckless, mindless behavior.”

Robert Gill of Fort Worth, Salinas-Gomez’s attorney, declined to comment Tuesday.

The accident happened Nov. 1.

George Moon had become ill and needed to go to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth. He called Carrie Hoskins, who went with her adult daughter to Moon’s home on Panama Drive in Forest Hill and picked him up, along with his wife. Hoskins’ daughter drove, Hoskins was a front-seat passenger, and the Moons sat in the back.

They were killed when Salinas-Gomez crashed into Hoskins’ sport utility vehicle.

Hoskins spent a week in the hospital. Her daughter was treated and released shortly after the crash.

Forest Hill police arrested Salinas-Gomez at the scene of the accident at Hartman Road and Richard Street in a Forest Hill residential neighborhood.

“I’m glad you’re being locked up. I only wish it were for a longer amount of time,” Steven Hoskins said in the victims’ statements. “We may be able to forgive you, in the future, but it won’t be today.”

This story was originally published May 31, 2016 at 1:28 PM with the headline "Victims upset with plea deal in Forest Hill fatal wreck."