Driver indicted on reckless manslaughter counts in crash that killed mother, daughterBy RYAN MYERSMarch, 30, 2007A
Jefferson County grand jury indicted a Port Neches man Thursday in the
December car crash that resulted in the deaths of a Mid-County mother
and daughter.
Colin Romero, 27, was indicted Thursday on two counts of reckless
manslaughter, filed as part of the investigation of an accident that
killed 52-year-old Rowena Dupuis and her daughter, Karmen Dupuis, 17.
Romero, who faces up to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine if
convicted on each second-degree felony count, left Jefferson County
jail March 12, a jail dispatcher said Thursday.
He had been held on a $75,000 bond, according to The Enterprise archives.
The mother and daughter were driving to a dance recital in Orange Dec.
1 when a car ran a red light at the intersection of FM 366 and Merriam
Street and hit their car, Port Neches police told The Enterprise in
December.
More than 500 mourners attended the Dupuis funeral visitation at St. Elizabeth Church, archives indicate.
Karmen Dupuis was a Port Neches High School junior who ranked seventh
in her class. She was planning to visit St. Thomas University in
Houston the weekend she died.
Rowena was a hairdresser for 30 years, and was working at Bonnie's Hair Studio in Nederland at the time of her death.
Friends and family told The Enterprise the mother and daughter were a dynamic duo who loved to be together.
The pair chaperoned middle school dances for St. Elizabeth Church and
delivered homemade sausage balls to Port Neches-Groves High School the
night before a big game against Nederland.
Romero originally was charged with intoxication manslaughter, also a second-degree felony.
It is not unusual for a district attorney's office to present grand
jurors with a charge different from the charge on which a suspect was
arrested.
It was not clear Thursday if Romero had an attorney.
rcmyers@beaumontenterprise.com
(409) 880-0736
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