Family gives emotional speeches as driver sentenced to probation in fatal Lakeway crash

Andrea Babineaux's voice was ragged with emotion as she spoke to Cameron O'Connell, the man who killed her 36-year-old husband in a Lakeway car crash three years ago.

"What a luxury to get this behind you," she choked out during her victim impact statement at O'Connell's sentencing. "I'm so jealous of you."

State District Judge Dayna Blazey on Friday accepted O'Connell's guilty plea to criminally negligent homicide and sentenced him to three years of deferred adjudication, which means he will avoid jail time as long as he does not commit another felony during that time and follows all his probation restrictions.

The sentence was part of a plea agreement between the Travis County district attorney's office and O'Connell's attorney.

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O'Connell was originally charged with manslaughter after the 2018 collision on Texas 71. The family of the victim, physician Michael Babineaux, opposed the plea deal and encouraged Blazey to reject it.

Blazey said she decided that "justice is best served, perhaps not perfectly served," by following the plea agreement. The case would have gone to trial if she had rejected it. The maximum sentence for criminally negligent homicide is two years in jail.

The outcome of O'Connell's case is in line with what judges and juries in Travis County have done in the past for negligent traffic deaths in which the driver was not intoxicated, the DA's office said in a statement.

"The outcome of this case will send a clear message that dangerous driving can result in serious criminal consequences. ... Our hearts continue to break for Dr. Babineaux and his family — we know that the criminal process has been long and understandably frustrating for them," the statement said.

While running for district attorney, DA José Garza promised to ensure that people are incarcerated for as short as is needed as well as "supporting those who have reformed themselves in returning home," according to his campaign platform.

Babineaux's father, Wallace Babineaux, said he was deeply disappointed in the outcome of the case.

"I don't think I received justice today. ... The DA did not represent us. You had two lawyers," he told O'Connell when it was his turn to take the stand. "We had none."

Outside the courtroom Friday, O'Connell said he is sorry for the crash. O'Connell had been ticketed for speeding in an earlier 2018 crash that injured a woman on RM 620, according to a lawsuit that was dismissed.

"I just feel horrible," he said. "I do deal with it every day, and I think about it all the time. I wish it all turned out differently."

On Oct. 29, 2018, O'Connell was driving a pickup west on Texas 71 and tailgating other vehicles, according to an arrest affidavit that cites witnesses. O'Connell drove into the center turn lane, a clearly marked "no passing zone," and sped up to pass a white SUV he was tailgating, the document says.

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Other witnesses stated that the SUV cut O'Connell off, "causing him to either have to rear-end that person or swerve," said O'Connell's attorney, Chris Perri. "He swerved into an open passing lane, but the gravel in that lane caused him to then spin out of control."

After that, O'Connell's vehicle veered into the lane of oncoming traffic and collided head-on with the BMW SUV that Babineaux was driving. Babineaux, who was on his way to pick up his son from day care, died at the scene.

His third child was born three days after his death.

Michael Babineaux vowed to become a doctor when he was a teenager, when he accompanied his father to paint the house of a man who was a doctor, his wife said. For Babineaux, who grew up as a person of color in Louisiana, the odds were stacked against him, but he got a scholarship to pursue that career, she said.

He later set up a practice in the Austin area as a gastroenterologist.

As Andrea Babineaux took the stand, she said she had dreaded this day in court.

"I literally had no room for anger for you," she told O'Connell while holding a framed picture of her three children. "I had no room to be mad because I have three babies to raise. ... I was a robot. I felt soulless."

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Andrea Babineaux said she was on the phone with her husband at the time of the crash and watched with horror as traffic backed up in her neighborhood because of the wreck.

"I couldn't do anything," she said. "I was so grief-stricken, and all because you had road rage. You decided to throw an adult temper tantrum. ... Now I have to pick up the mess you made."

O'Connell's probation conditions require him to submit to random alcohol and drug tests, to remain in Travis County unless he gets a travel permit from his probation officer, and to complete 60 hours of community service. He must also write a letter to the judge annually about what he's learned while on probation.

If O'Connell commits another felony while he's on probation or violates the conditions, he will face two to 10 years in prison.

Perri said that, had this case gone to trial, a jury might not have given O'Connell jail time or found him guilty at all. The evidence was not as strong as it could have been because Texas Department of Public Safety troopers did not record all witness interviews via bodycam, nor did they sufficiently document details about the crash scene, Perri said.

Troopers reconstructed the crash by taking measurements at the scene, but they did not use electronic equipment, said DPS spokesman Sgt. Deon Cockrell.

"They recorded the evidence on the scene that they had in front in them," he said.

Cockrell confirmed that DPS did not record all the witness interviews.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Michael Babineaux's family speaks as Cameron O'Connell sentenced in crash