HOUSTON – A magistrate judge reviewed a case Monday morning involving a mother accused of driving while intoxicated and causing a fiery crash that severely burned her son. Court officials said the six-year-old will likely die and the mother was given a $75,000 bond.
Authorities said early Saturday morning 28-year-old Erika Long was caused a single-vehicle crash along the Grand Parkway in Spring. Long’s car burst into flames while her son was still inside.
“A witness stated he arrived immediately after the crash, saw this defendant out of the vehicle with a six-year-old child that was on fire, another witness who did not remain on the scene was able to put the fire out on the child with a fix extinguisher,” said a Harris County court official.
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The six-year-old boy taken to UTMB via Life Flight while his mother was taken to a local hospital in stable condition.
“We believe she was intoxicated on alcohol and some other substance,” said Chief of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office Vehicular Crimes Division, Sean Teare.
Teare said Long has been charged twice before in connection to her six-year-old son. One of the charges was driving while intoxicated with a child passenger, and endangering her child, the latter charge when the boy was two years old.
“The allegations are which she eventually plead guilty to is she abandoned him and left him outside of a house while she went inside to get high or hang out with her friends for a number of hours to a point when officers responded and found him in the car he had passed out from the heat, so in six years this young boy has had a tragic time and she may have finally killed him,” said Teare.
Teare said if the boy does pass away, Long will be charged with murder. Teare is currently working to revoke Long’s bond.