A 26-year-old Victoria man is dead and two people, including a 12-year-old girl, were flown to out-of-town hospitals with serious injuries after a three-vehicle crash on Sam Houston Drive Tuesday evening. Police arrested 22-year-old Xavier Cantu at the scene and later charged him with intoxication manslaughter and two counts of intoxication assault.
According to the Victoria Advocate, the Victoria Police Department said Cantu's truck veered into oncoming traffic in the 3800 block of Sam Houston Drive before colliding with an SUV driven by Terrence Cubit, 26. Cantu's truck then struck another truck driven by 72-year-old Gary Bennett before coming to a stop in a private driveway, police said. It's unclear from available information whether Bennett was injured in the crash.
Cubit died from his injuries, police said. Two passengers in his SUV — a 12-year-old girl and 44-year-old Laquanda Callis — were taken to out-of-town hospitals with serious injuries after the SUV struck a utility pole near Lilac Lane, according to the same report. The extent of their current conditions has not been publicly updated.
Charges Carry Mandatory Prison Time If Convicted
Cantu was booked into the Victoria County Jail Wednesday and remained in custody pending arraignment, per jail records cited by the Advocate. He faces one count of intoxication manslaughter with a vehicle, a second-degree felony, along with two counts of intoxication assault with a vehicle causing serious bodily injury, each a third-degree felony.
Under Texas Penal Code § 49.08, intoxication manslaughter carries a punishment range of 2 to 20 years in state prison and a fine of up to $10,000, according to FindLaw. Each of the two intoxication assault counts, under Penal Code § 49.07, carries a separate penalty range of 2 to 10 years and a fine of up to $10,000. Serious bodily injury under that statute is defined as an injury that creates a substantial risk of death or causes serious permanent disfigurement or protracted loss of a bodily function, per FindLaw's summary of the code.
Notably, Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 42A.054 bars judges from granting court-ordered probation for intoxication manslaughter convictions, meaning prison time is effectively mandatory unless a jury explicitly recommends community supervision during sentencing, as Hoodline has previously reported. Separately, a Texas Senate Bill 745 amendment that took effect September 1, 2025, allows prosecutors to enhance intoxication manslaughter to a first-degree felony punishable by 5 to 99 years or life in prison when a driver's actions kill more than one person in the same transaction, according to an analysis from the Senate Research Center. That enhancement would not appear to apply here, since the crash resulted in one death.
Hours-Long Closure Snarled Sam Houston Drive
Emergency crews shut down the 3800 block of Sam Houston Drive around 7 p.m. Tuesday and kept it closed for roughly three hours while investigators processed the scene, according to a Facebook post tracking the incident. The Victoria Police Department fully reopened the roadway by about 10:13 p.m. Tuesday night after completing its work.
Sam Houston Drive has seen serious crashes before. In June 2022, a 35-year-old woman was arrested on a third-degree felony intoxication assault charge after striking a pedestrian in the driveway of a business on the same street, the Victoria Advocate reported at the time. In September 2019, a speed-related collision on the corridor left a 24-year-old driver hospitalized after his vehicle was broadsided by an SUV, according to an earlier Advocate report.
Alcohol-Involved Crashes Remain a Local Concern
Citywide, Victoria recorded 691 total traffic crashes in 2024, including 5 fatal crashes and 55 alcohol-involved collisions, according to Texas Department of Transportation crash data compiled by TexDDS. Separate TxDOT reporting shows the Victoria Police Department investigated 6 fatal crashes resulting in 6 deaths in 2024, matching the same fatal crash total recorded the year before.
Cantu's blood-alcohol content results have not yet been released, and it remains unclear whether bond has been set following his arraignment. Updated conditions for the 12-year-old girl and Callis have also not been made public.
