Following a pact reached in October 2024, Charles Duffield secured a reduced prison term of eight years for his role in a high-speed crash that left two Bexar County Precinct 2 deputy constables severely injured. The incident occurred while Deputies Leticia Martinez and Alfred Alcatar were directing traffic in a construction zone near Runberg Lane and Highway 183 in Austin.
In an event that would reshape lives, Duffield was fleeing at speeds estimated between 110-120 mph when his Honda Civic collided with a Hyundai Santa Fe, spiraling out of control and striking the deputies, Martinez sustained significant injuries, including fractures to her left femur and right leg while Alcatar suffered a crushed foot; Duffield, initially charged with two counts of intoxication assault on a peace officer and two counts of aggravated assault on a public servant, ultimately pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault on a public servant as part of the plea agreement and the other charges were subsequently waived.
According to KSAT, Precinct 2 Constable Leticia Vasquez expressed the department's disappointment with the case's outcome, emblematic of a system grappling with balancing punishment and justice. In a statement obtained by FOX 7 Austin, Sgt. Alfred Alcantar lamented the brevity of Duffield's sentence, saying, "He's only going to do eight years. He'll probably get out before four and a half and then go back to having a normal life." while Martinez's future is marred by a "lifetime sentence of pain and surgery."
Sgt. Alcantar continued to recount the enduring trauma of the event, "I'm still traumatized, you know. I'm still doing the same kind of work I was doing when I got hit," he told FOX 7 Austin, "But now it's like, every time I feel like a truck or a car coming near me or my car feels just like panic, you know like I'm going to get hit, and I just close my eyes." Deputy Martinez's road to recovery remains daunting, with muscles from her calf and thigh being used to reconstruct the tissue lost from her severely crushed legs.
