A trooper pulled over a gray Jeep on US Highway 83 on August 4. The stop ended with the driver in jail. A second person ran off into the brush.
State Trooper P. Mendoza, badge number 15733, was on routine patrol that day. He pulled the Jeep over on US 83. During the stop, he cited the driver for four things. The plate on the Jeep was expired. The registration sticker was not displayed right. The driver was going over the speed limit. The driver also had no insurance. Texas law requires every driver to carry insurance. The driver was Victoria Fuentes, 38, of Starr County.
When Mendoza walked up to the Jeep, a man got out of the back seat. He ran off on foot. Troopers did not catch him. They later learned his name. He is Jovan Jimenez, 27. Jimenez left a bag behind in the Jeep. Inside it, troopers found a bottle they believe held THC oil. THC is the drug in marijuana that gets people high. The bottle was small, under one gram. Under Texas law, that kind of find can still lead to a drug charge. Troopers are still looking for Jimenez. He has not been charged with anything yet, since he was never caught.
While all this was happening, Fuentes had her 13-year-old daughter in the front seat of the Jeep. Mendoza smelled alcohol on Fuentes. He asked her to step out and do field sobriety tests. These are simple tests that check if someone is drunk. Fuentes agreed to take the tests.
Mendoza saw signs that Fuentes was drunk. He placed her under arrest for drunk driving, known by the legal term DWI. Her daughter was in the car during the stop. That one fact makes the charge much worse under Texas law. Driving drunk with a child under 15 in the car is a state jail felony. That is a serious charge. It can mean six months to two years in a state jail, plus a fine. A normal first DWI charge is only a misdemeanor. Having a child in the car changes everything. Deputies booked Fuentes into the Starr County Jail after her arrest.
The case now has a number. It is TX 2026-1788324. Troopers signed the charge on August 5, one day after the arrest.
This case hits home in Starr County. US Highway 83 is the main road through the county. Cars and trucks use it every day. It is the same road most families here use to get to work, school, or the store. A routine traffic stop turned into a felony arrest. It also left one man still on the run.
Texas made this charge tougher for a reason. Kids cannot get out of a car by themselves. A child has no say when a parent has been drinking. If a parent drives drunk with a child inside, the child faces the same danger as the parent. Lawmakers wrote the higher charge into the Texas Penal Code, under section 49.045(b), just for cases like this one. Prosecutors treat these cases as serious from the start.
The THC bottle found in Jimenez's bag adds another piece to this stop. One traffic stop now has two open matters tied to it. Fuentes faces the DWI charge with her daughter as a passenger. Jimenez remains at large. It is not yet clear what charge he could face once he is found.
Fuentes is due in court on the DWI charge. Her case will move through the Starr County court system like other state jail felony cases. No court date has been set as of this report. Jimenez has not been located as of this report, and the search for him is ongoing.
