The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper The Spokesman-Review
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
Current Temperature
46°F
Current Conditions
Broken clouds
View complete weather report

Color Scheme

Subscribe now

Woman sentenced to 15 years for killing Dallas police officer in wrong-way crash

Photos of Dallas Police Officer Jacob Arellano were on display during his funeral mass at St. Paul Catholic Church in Richardson, Texas, Oct. 19, 2022. Arellano was killed on his way to work in a wrong-way crash involving a drunk driver. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News/Pool/TNS) (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News/TNS)
By Kelli Smith Dallas Morning News

DALLAS – A woman who fatally struck a Dallas police officer in a wrong-way crash in 2022 was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison, according to court records.

Mayra Rebollar Pineda, 33, pleaded guilty to intoxication manslaughter in the death of Jacob Arellano, court records show. Her attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rebollar Pineda faced up to 20 years in prison. Claire Crouch, a spokeswoman for the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, said there was also a deadly weapon finding, which means Rebollar Pineda will need to serve at least one half of the sentence. Crouch declined to provide further comment.

Arellano, 25, was struck Oct. 11, 2022, as he drove to work in his police uniform just before midnight. The crash spun his SUV from the middle lane to the right lane, where he was hit by a tractor-trailer. His vehicle rolled multiple times. He was taken to a hospital, where he died.

Arellano’s colleagues at the Northwest Patrol Division realized something was wrong when he didn’t show up for work that day. He’d joined the Dallas Police Department in 2019 and had become a father a year before the crash. He was also the twin brother of another Dallas police officer, Josh.

Police officials have said Rebollar Pineda was driving the wrong way and was under the influence. She was hospitalized before being moved to the Dallas County jail, where she’s remained up until her sentence.

The Dallas Police Department and Arellano’s uncle did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday. The killing spurred attention on wrong-way crashes and intoxicated driving in Texas. In the weeks after Arellano’s death, the police department expanded its driving under the influence unit.

“Any officer lost has a profound impact on our department, on our community,” Dallas police Chief Eddie García said at the time. “It’s our hope that … adding extra patrols will help us to even better enforce the law and keep impaired drivers off the road to make sure this doesn’t happen to another department or family.”