Driver in dual-fatality wreck indicted
By SHANNON CRABTREE scrabtree@leader-news.com

L-N File Photo In Remembrance Family members set up this memorial on the edge of Hwy. 71 North near Taiton at the site of a two-vehicle collision in August that claimed the lives of 18-year-old Raul Esquivel Jr. of Eagle Lake and Marisela Andrade Padilla, 25, of Sealy. The driver of the truck that hit the sedan was just indicted on seven felony charges by a Wharton County Grand Jury.

The 19-year-old Danevang man accused of killing two people when his elevated pickup rolled over the top of a sedan on Hwy. 71 near Taiton has been formally indicted by the Wharton County Grand Jury on seven felony counts.

Clayton Layne Nielsen of 9309 CR 403 now faces trial on two counts of intoxication manslaughter, two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon (the vehicle) and four counts of felony failure to stop and render aid.

Department of Public Safety Troopers Jose Mena and Sgt. Danny Terronez offered grand jury testimony in the case during October deliberations.

Accused of driving drunk, Nielsen allegedly "by accident or mistake … (failed) to drive in a single lane thereby crossing into the path of the vehicle in which Raul Esquivel Jr." and Mariela Padilla were passengers.

Nielsen's elevated 1997 Dodge pickup struck and rolled over the top left side of a small Toyota Corolla occupied by four people about 3:54 a.m. Aug. 12 about 5 miles north of El Campo on Hwy. 71 near Taiton. Nielsen had been traveling southbound on Hwy. 71 and Esquivel, of Eagle Lake, northbound.

Two other people - Esquivel's brother Sergio and Ariana Engbrock - were injured. Both were transported from the scene to the trauma center at Houston's Memorial Hermann Hospital via Life Flight helicopter.

Nielsen initially fled into a field near the scene, according to DPS reports, but then called law enforcement on his cell phone walking out of a field and surrendering to officers.

He was not injured in the collision.

On the day of wreck, Nielsen was charged with two counts of intoxication manslaughter with a vehicle two counts of intoxication assault with a vehicle, and one felony charge of failure to stop and render aid.

The grand jury added the other three counts.

Nielsen's case will be handled by the 329th District Court in Wharton County under the ruling of Judge Randy Clapp.

Esquivel Jr. and Padilla were two of the 12 people who have died so far on the roadways of Wharton County.