TYLER, Texas — Editor's Note: The attached video is from July 2022.
The bond for a Dallas-area man accused of striking and killing Smith County Deputy Lorenzo Bustos while driving intoxicated was reduced Wednesday morning in court.
Daniel Nyabuto, 21, of Grand Prairie, who is charged with intoxication manslaughter causing the death of a peace officer, appeared in the 7th District Court for a bond reduction hearing.
At the hearing, Judge Kerry Russell approved reducing Nyabuto's bond from $750,000 to $500,000, Smith County District Attorney Jacob Putman said.
Nyabuto was indicted (or formally charged) Oct. 13, according to online criminal records. The charge is considered a first-degree felony, which carries a penalty of five to 99 years in prison if the person is found guilty.
Bustos, 29, was on patrol with another deputy on late 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. Smith said Bustos was "launched under the patrol unit."
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.
Before coming to Smith County, Bustos worked at the Henderson Police Department and the Rusk County Sheriff's Office.
He graduated from Chapel Hill High School in 2011. He married his high school sweetheart Gloria and they have three children together (ages 8, 5 and 4).