December 1, 2023 – Judge Eddie Northcutt sentenced Gerald Lee Adams to seven years in prison in connection with a vehicle crash that resulted in the deaths of four people in December 2022. Adams was involved in multi-vehicle accident on SH 19, near CR 4764, just south of Birthright. Four were killed and nine were injured. See the original story here. Adams turned himself in to authorities in August of 2023 to face four charges of criminally negligent homicide stemming from the accident. KSST News’ original report of the accident was as follows: At least four people are reported to have been killed in a 5-vehicle crash, which shut down State Highway 19 north for more than 3 hours Sunday, Dec. 4, 2022. Nine others were transported by ambulance to the hospital for treatment of injuries, eight with what were reported as non-incapacitating injuries and one with capacitating injuries.
The details of the accident proved to be horrific as the chain-reaction crash took the lives of four Hopkins County residents in a single vehicle. Pronounced dead at the crash site by Judge Cummings were were all four occupants in the 1998 Toyota Avalon: Celestino and Celia Reina, both 60-year-old Sulphur Springs residents; 22-year-old Maria Reina; and a 7-year-old Sulphur Springs boy, according to DPS reports. The youth was identified by Cummings as Dariel Rodriguez, reported to be the son of Maria Reina.
