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Luis Torres, pictured at 18, after the 2020 wreck
Taking on ever-changing indictments against a then-teenager accused of drunkenly driving his Mustang into a Beaumont patrol car, killing 23-year-old BPD Officer Sheena Yarbrough-Powell, Judge John Stevens accepted a plea deal in Jefferson County’s Criminal District Court that could send the culpable driver, Luis Torres, now 20, to prison for up to three decades.
According to an indictment released nearly three months after Officer Yarbrough-Powell’s death in August 2020, Torres’ blood-alcohol content was more than three times the legal limit when he crashed into her and Officer Gabriel Fells.
The deal reached in charge No. 20-35846 was provided as a capped maximum of 30 years confinement for the intoxication manslaughter charge, combined with an anticipated aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge capped at 20 years confinement to run concurrently and a fine not to exceed $10,000.
Torres is set for sentencing May 23.