Driver, truck company owner arrested in connection with SFA students traffic deaths

LIVINGSTON, Texas (KTRE) - The truck driver involved in a 2023 traffic crash in Corrigan that killed two SFA students and his employer have been arrested.

An arrest affidavit states both at first denied the existence of a dash camera in the truck at the time of the wreck and did not make it or an SD card available as evidence.

Antonio Sandoval Jr., 70, of Diboll, and Marlin Kendall Hughes, 53, of Corrigan, are each charged with tampering with evidence.

SFA students Micah McAfoose and Graylan Spring were killed in the wreck after Sandoval did not yield the right of way while entering U.S. 59 in Corrigan.

The call saying that the two men had been arrested, is justice Krista Spring, Graylan Spring’s mother, said she’s been waiting for for almost three years.

“The first thing I did was just thanked God. Prayers answered. We wake up every morning praying for justice for these boys,” Spring said.

Spring said that this act of justice was a long time coming for her son.

She describes him as happy, loving and kind to everyone— and someone that was taken too soon.

“The future ahead of him was large and it was taken away from him,” she said.

The tampering investigation began in August when District Judge Robert Inselmann requested an investigation into the removal and possible concealment of a dash camera video system from the truck.

A review of Sandoval’s disposition in a civil case showed that Sandoval said he removed the camera from the truck on Jan. 20, 2023, after the crash. He said he put the camera in a bag and gave it to Hughes. He said he knew the camera was important for what it may have recorded. He denied deleting files from the system or ever trying to copy the video. He also said he never removed the SD card from the camera.

A review of a second disposition showed that Sandoval never disclosed the existence of the camera to law enforcement. Sandoval was no-billed by a Polk County grand jury on a charge of criminal negligent homicide.

A review of correspondence between Sandoval’s attorney, Marcy Rothman, showed attorneys for the Spring family asking about the existence of a dash camera system. Rothman responded that she was unaware of a dash camera system. In one correspondence, Rothman replied, “To relieve your current anxiety, I can tell you that the defendants in the pending lawsuit have not located any dash cam or dash cam video and will respond accordingly to any discovery.”

According to the affidavit, the family’s attorneys produced a DPS trooper’s body camera that showed a camera system in the truck. Rothman then had a forensic technician take the camera system to Inselmann’s office. But the technician tried to make a copy of the disk and learned there was no data on it.

The SD card was submitted to a DPS lab for analysis, and it was not clear if the disk had been forensically wiped due to the card being physically damaged.

The affidavit for Hughes states that Hughes admitted to telling Sandoval to give him the camera. It also states that Hughes never told law enforcement about the existence of the camera.

In response to Hughes’ arrest his attorney, Ryan Deaton, Hughes’ shared the following statement.

“Mr. Hughes is a highly respected businessman and valued member of the Polk County community. He has no prior criminal history and did not commit a crime in this case. We look forward to presenting our case in court.”

With the statute of limitations nearing from the 2023 investigation, Spring said that she started reaching out to the Texas Rangers for support.

She said with help of a Texas Ranger in Lufkin, another investigation was started that led to arrest of the two men.

“We knew what truly happened and we weren’t satisfied with no one being held accountable,” Spring said.

She explained that this is a huge step for her family, and though she’s excited, she says the fight is not over yet to get justice for her son- starting with what she says is a fair, unbiased trial.

“It’s just the start, it’s just the start, but I will revel in this little bit of accountability and this little light of justice,” Spring said.

Sandoval and Hughes were booked into the Polk County Jail on Wednesday and posted $10,000 bonds on Thursday.