SAN ANTONIO – After an evening of drinking at a North San Antonio bar, Zachary Song Brewer drove the wrong way on TPC Parkway and crashed into two oncoming vehicles.
A passenger in Brewer's car, Jaime Hernandez, was critically injured.
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Brewer testified Wednesday during his trial on intoxication assault charges that the men had been at the bar for several hours. He said that he stopped drinking two hours before the crash but that Hernandez continued drinking heavily and when they left the bar, asked him for a ride home.
"He couldn't even open the door to his own car," Brewer testified.
Brewer told the jury that as he pulled onto TPC Parkway, Hernandez was arguing on the phone with his wife and that made him nervous and uneasy. He said Hernandez either dropped or threw down the phone.
Sobbing, Brewer said, "I reached down to pick it up and my foot -- I kept it on the gas and I freaked out and panicked. The next thing I remembered was just a flash of light and the next thing was I woke up in the hospital."
Hernandez was taken by medical helicopter to the hospital with multiple injuries but survived. Brewer was taken to the hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries. No one in the other vehicles were injured.
A hospital blood draw, which his lawyer has challenged, showed Brewer's blood alcohol level was 0.19 -- more than twice the legal limit.
Brewer insisted repeatedly that it was his nervousness and lack of driving experience and not alcohol that caused the wreck.
Testimony will continue on Thursday in Judge Raymond Angelini's 187th District Court.
A conviction could mean a maximum prison sentence of 10 years for Brewer.
For a list of recent stories Paul Venema has done, click here.
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