Background: The portion of road where Hernandez drunkenly crashed into the Rojas family in August 2023 (crime scene footage screengrab from YouTube/KVIA). Inset: Cassandra Hernandez booking photo courtesy El Paso Sheriff’s Office.
The family of a woman killed by a drunk driver in El Paso, Texas, is demanding accountability — not just from the person who was behind the wheel but from two of the bars where the victim’s family alleges the drunk driver was overserved, kicking off a tragic and irreversible sequence of events.
Alondra Soriano Rojas was a passenger in a Chevrolet Tahoe cruising down a highway in El Paso, Texas, last August when a drunken resident, Cassandra Hernandez, careened into the back of the car that Rojas rode in with her sisters, Dulce Rivera Soriano and Paloma Soriano. Hernandez hit the Tahoe at such a high rate of speed in her Chevrolet Sonic that it forced the Tahoe to hit a guard rail, roll over, and crash into a pole. Hernandez’s vehicle caught fire and she briefly spun out.
Rojas, 40, was “partially ejected” from the vehicle and died at the scene. Her sisters were injured and had to be transported to the emergency room.
Hernandez was convicted of intoxication manslaughter with a vehicle and sentenced to five years in prison earlier this month, according to a review of the docket in El Paso.
The family’s attorney, Gabriel Perez, told Law&Crime in an email Wednesday the family hoped to hold everyone responsible for Rojas’ death accountable.
“They hope to bring attention to the problem of overserving patrons at bars and clubs in the area. This terrible loss could have been prevented if the establishments patronized by Ms. Hernandez had not continued to serve her or had called her a cab,” Perez said.
The crash happened close to 1 a.m. on Loop 375 and Zaragoza Road.
According to the lawsuit filed in El Paso, in addition to Hernandez, the parties sued are Mario Jaramillo, who owns B17 Bombers Oyster Pub in downtown El Paso, and Paul Johnson IV and Ruben Salai, owners of the Church Bar, also located in El Paso.
“Defendant Hernandez was arrested at the scene for intoxicated manslaughter and assault of all three plaintiffs. Defendant Hernandez was found to have a receipt from Defendant Bombers Oyster Pub and Defendant The Church Bar where she had consumed an excess amount of alcoholic beverages prior to driving her 2020 Chevrolet Sonic vehicle,” the lawsuit states.
Hernandez was overserved for hours, according to the family, and this was done “intentionally.”
Hernandez is being sued for “failure to keep a proper look out” — something she could have done or would have been able to do had she not been so drastically under the influence, the Rojas family says. A “person of prudent care,” the lawsuit notes, would have stopped, yielded or even turned their car to avoid the collision.
As for the bars, the family alleges they violated local liability laws.
The Texas Alcohol and Beverage Code forbids patrons who are “obviously drunk” from being served, the family’s attorney wrote. But the code also contains a “unique” provision that allows statutory actions to be taken so long as there is proof that the person being sold the alcohol was already intoxicated and posed a danger to themselves or others. The intoxication of that must person must also be proven to be a “proximate cause of the damages suffered.”
“It was abundantly apparent that Ms. Hernandez was beyond intoxicated and given the fact that she was traveling so fast as to cause her own vehicle to catch fire, this only reinforces the rate of speed and the level of impairment,” Perez wrote.
Suing for wrongful death, the family is seeking $1 million in damages plus any applicable fines on the bars and a revocation of their liquor licenses as necessary.
Attorneys for Hernandez and the El Paso bars could not immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday.
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