TYLER, Texas — EDITOR'S NOTE: The attached video is from August 2022.
The attorney for a Dallas-area man accused of striking and killing Smith County Deputy Lorenzo Bustos while driving intoxicated is seeking a change of venue for his client's trial.
Daniel Nyabuto, 21, of Grand Prairie, was charged with intoxication manslaughter and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Defense attorney Matt Bingham noted "pervasive pre-trial coverage" in his request to move the trial to Cherokee County. A pre-trial hearing is set for Wednesday, April 19, at 9 a.m. in the 7th District Court of Judge Kerry Russell.
Bustos, 29, was on patrol with another deputy in the later hours of July 28 in the 14000 block of State Highway 155 S. and had performed a traffic stop with emergency lights activated on the patrol unit, the Smith County Sheriff's Office said.
Smith County Sheriff Larry Smith said the deputies had two people in the vehicle in handcuffs and put them in the back seat of the unit.
At approximately 12:15 a.m. on July 29, the other deputy, Michael Skinner, called emergency services saying that Bustos had been hit by a different vehicle.
The sheriff's office said Bustos was flown to a Tyler hospital, where he died in the ICU around 6 a.m.
Nyabuto, who officials identified as the driver of the vehicle that struck the deputies, was arrested and booked into the Smith County Jail initially on an intoxicated assault charge.
He was then transferred to the Gregg County Jail, where he currently remains jailed. Nyabuto's passenger, who has not been identified, was charged with public intoxication.
According to an arrest affidavit, a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper said Nyabuto did not know where his destination was or where he came from. Nyabuto swayed while he was standing.
The trooper wrote in the affidavit that lost his mental and physical faculties and was intoxicated.
Bustos was in his last day of the "ghost phase," which is a part of SCSO training. He had been with the SCSO for about five months, Smith said. Skinner was taken to a local hospital where he was treated and released.