TYLER, Texas — Editor's note: The above video is from June 2019.
The trial of a Tyler man accused of striking and killing a 14-year-old boy with a boat at Lake Palestine in 2019 is scheduled for April.
Jeffrey Joe Hampton, 33, of Tyler, is accused of causing the death of Roberto Carlos Bermejo Hernandez on June 2, 2019. He is charged with manslaughter and accidental boating death.
The Smith County Sheriff’s Office said Hampton crashed his bass boat when the boy was swimming at Lakeway Harbor on Lake Palestine.
During a Friday hearing, 114th District Court Judge Austin Reeve Jackson said the trial date of April 18 will remain in place.
Both the prosecution and defense agreed a trial was needed during a hearing last summer.
Hampton’s defense attorney Mishae Boren asked Jackson if there were any sooner trial dates, but Jackson said the April setting was still the earliest date.
Hampton has been in the Smith County Jail since his arrest on June 3, 2019, on bonds totaling $1 million.
Police said Hampton left the scene of the crash before officers arrived and was arrested the next day by Texas Parks and Wildlife.
Roberto, 14, who was often called Carlos or Carlitos by friends and family, attended Douglas Elementary and Moore Middle School. He was set to attend Early College School in fall 2019, where he would be working on his associate’s degree from Tyler Junior College while still in high school. He wanted to become a veterinarian and raise cute dogs, his mom Judith Hernandez said in 2020.
June 2, 2019 was the first time the Hernandez family went to Lake Palestine. His mom said they arrived at the lake at 6:30 p.m. and the accident happened at 8 p.m.
The boy’s mom said the boat came out of nowhere, and Carlos protected his two sisters, Alexa and Irene, from the boat with his body.
“If I knew that was going to happen, I would never go to that lake,” she said. “But at the same time, I knew that God needed him.”
The Parent-Teacher Association at Moore Middle School paid for a stone in honor of Carlos at the Children’s Park in Tyler.
“During all his school time, he was a role model,” she said. “He was friends with everybody.”