CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A Corpus Christi mother is speaking out about the punishment that was handed down to the driver who killed her youngest son, and left another one of her sons in critical condition following a wrong-way DWI crash.
The crash happened in August 2023 on I-37 between the Coastal Bend State Veterans Cemetery and McKinzie Road.
The suspect who hit them took a plea bargain Thursday in the 94th District Court in which he will serve up to 14 years in prison.
"My life has never been the same since August 20, when my son was hit and killed by a drunk driver," said Theresa Schneider.
It's been almost seven months and the mother of 25-year-old Benjamin Schneider is still trying to process her grief.
"I cry every morning, every night, every day; he was my baby the youngest of my children, I will never learn how to live without him," she said.
Her two sons were just minutes away from their mother's house after visiting a brother in Corpus Christi who was back from the military, when another driver, going the wrong way crashed into them.
That driver, authorities determined, was intoxicated.
"All the windows shattered, Benjamin's side was smashed in," she said. "The trunk was ripped off and on the other side of the freeway," she said.
One son was taken to CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital.
Her youngest, Benjamin, did not survive.
"A phone call from my daughter telling me she thinks my son had passed, I just started screaming 'no,' I jumped out of bed, I ran into the room next to me, my sons were staying overnight, they both lived in San Antonio, I crawled out of bed and just started screaming 'no,'" she said. "I stared calling and trying to make phone calls to find where Benjamin had truly passed, and if Michael was okay, my other son in the car with him. I found someone at Annaville Fire Department and he was kind enough to talk to me and he said, 'yes ma'am I didn't know if you knew.'"
Theresa told 3NEWS her son's life was cut short and that he had so much more to give.
Benjamin was a graduate of Calallen High School and received his bachelor's degree in computer science from University of Texas San Antonio.
His mother said he was someone who loved to travel, visiting places like South Korea and Japan.
"He worked to vacation," she said. "He just came back from a trip for his birthday. He went to Costa Rica. He liked to travel, he would send pictures of being on a boat and hiking the volcano."
He is also described as a young man who cared for others.
"I didn't know how much he cared until his funeral and his friends tell me how much he meant to them and how he saved some of them," she said.
He was also an organ donor.
"Because of the violence and the mutilation he received from the accident he wasn't able to be an organ donor like he wanted to," she said.
Theresa revisited where the crash happened with us. She passes by it everyday, as she drives home from work.
"Having to drive past it is...I have to look and some days I come park here, and know this is the last place my son was alive," she shared.
The driver in the other vehicle responsible Alan Mendoza was in court this week will serve 14 years in prison for a plea agreement.
"I feel like it wasn't enough time," Theresa told 3NEWS.
Her plea to anyone who is thinking about getting behind the wheel after a night of drinking, "Please don't do it, please don't do it. You may be saving a family the heartache that my family is having to suffer with."
Mendoza who is not a US citizen will eventually have to be deported back to Mexico as soon as his sentence is served.
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