2011 took a heavy toll

Last year was an especially bad one when it came to young people dying unnatural deaths in the Brazos Valley: Sixteen people under the age of 30 died in auto accidents or as the result of homicides in 2011. Another death was by suicide.

Of that total, eight were teenagers.

It's a tragedy any time a young person dies, but the seemingly large number of sudden deaths by violence or roadway accidents cast a pall on 2011.

The deadly toll began early last January with the Grimes County death of an 8-year-old boy, the son of a sheriff's department captain. Michael Todd Greene died after the vehicle in which he was riding with his parents was struck head-on by a hydroplaning pickup that crossed into oncoming traffic.

It continued mid-way through 2011, when four young people from Brenham, ranging in age from 19 to 22, died after a drunk driver slammed his truck into the back of the car in which they were riding.

And the year closed out on a somber note: On Dec. 14, an 18-year-old was fatally shot in Bryan by two men who planned to rob the teenager for illegal drugs, police said. Two suspects were arrested shortly after the killing and charged with capital murder.

Homicides

Investigators say drugs were a factor in two of the four homicides involving young people in Brazos County last year.

In October, 19-year-old Billy Mernard Jr. was fatally shot in Bryan.

Travis Alan Carroll, 18; Christopher Michael Hernandez, 21; and Clayton James Thompson, 22; were arrested and indicted by a Brazos County grand jury each for a first-degree felony charge of murder.

Investigators believe Menard took $160 worth of marijuana from Carroll, so later that day Carroll, Thompson and Hernandez went to Menard's home to collect either money or the drugs.

In mid-December, 18-year-old Raymond Cavazos of Bryan died in what police believe was another drug-related killing. Arrested and charged with capital murder in his death were Clifton Montgomery Jr., 25, of College Station; and Eugene Jenkins, 38, of Bryan.

Montgomery told investigators that he and Jenkins, who was armed with a .380-caliber handgun, went to Cavazos' home to rob him of methamphetamine and cocaine he was selling.

In late October, a 22-year-old man died outside a Brazos County bar. Brandon Keith Richardson was charged with manslaughter in the death of Brenham native Brice Latoron Bennett outside Neal's Hideaway Club on F.M. 159 in Millican.

Richardson, 27, admitted to firing a gun, but said he was trying to disperse an unruly crowd, authorities said. Richardson said Bennett was his best friend, according to a sheriff's department report on the death.

Another tragedy involving young people was recorded in late September, in what Brazos County Sheriff's Office determined was a murder-suicide.

Investigators said 22-year-old Chance Allen Schneider shot and killed 20-year-old Ashley Marie Lenz, his on-again, off-again girlfriend, at his rural home before turning the .40 caliber semiautomatic handgun on himself.

Vehicle fatalities

Traffic accidents accounted for the largest share of violent deaths of young people last year.

On New Year's Eve, 26-year-old Kent Cox of Sugar Land died after leading the Madison County Sheriff's Office on a 20-mile chase at speeds topping 125 mph. Cox died after crashing his motorcycle head-on into a Toyota at a sharp curve in Grimes County.

The holidays were marred for the Texas A&M football team by the death of 22-year-old reserve lineman Joseph Villavisencio, killed in a head-on collision on his way home to Jacksonville for Christmas.

Another heartbreaking loss for the community came on Sept. 15, when 14-year-old Mark Harding Jr. was struck by a state trooper's patrol car at about 1 a.m. as he attempted to skateboard across the feeder road of Texas 6 near William D. Fitch Parkway. The College Station Middle School eighth-grader was taken to The Med with a head injury and died there.

Four young Brenham residents died in late August when a drunk driver slammed his truck into their Mustang. Killed in the accident were Rachel Ann Dominguez, 22, Guillermo Gonzalez Delgado, 19, Ronald Barrios Mendez, 19, and Imelda Yajaira-Sukey Duran, 20. Roberto Castillo was charged with intoxicated manslaughter in the accident.

Charles Rakin, 13, of Austin, died in early June in a two-vehicle wreck near Hearne that also injured four other people.

In early July, 17-year-old Kayla Denise Wager of Whitehouse died after the Mazda truck she was driving veered off U.S. 190 east of Bryan. Wager overcorrected, causing the truck to roll several times, investigators said. Her father, a passenger in the truck, sustained only minor injuries.

In April, an 18-year-old Hockley woman died in a single-vehicle accident near Snook. Theresa Sweeden was a passenger in a truck that drifted off the right side of the road, went out of control and struck several trees.

A Blinn College student also died in April after his vehicle rolled over on Elmo Weedon Road in Brazos County. Collin Phillip Buteaux, 20, of Katy, was driving at an unsafe speed when he lost control, causing the vehicle to overturn, police said.

In mid-February, James Robert Souza January, 29, died in a car accident. He was two and half months shy of completing his degree in construction management from Texas A&M University.

On Jan. 9, Taylor Adrian Gillespie, 21, died in an automobile accident. While at Texas A&M, he was a member of the Corps of Cadets Company P-2 and his senior year was inducted into the O. R. Simpson Honor Society for outstanding scholastic achievement.

The New Year

The phenomenon did not abate with the turning of the calender: On the first day of 2012, 21-year-old Whitney Pullen of College Station died after being shot in the head.

Kenneth Wayne Connor, 22, of College Station, was arrested in the shooting and charged with criminally negligent homicide in Pullen's death.

Then, on Jan. 9, a 20-year-old Calvert man was killed in a car accident in Robertson County while on his way to work in Bryan.

Anthony Tostado, a former Blinn College student, died after his car hydroplaned, causing it to strike an oncoming vehicle, authorities said.