Former Cuban communist leader faces homicide charges after fatal crash in the United States

Alexis Osmani González Companioni, a former leader of the communist youth and the University Student Federation (FEU) in Cuba who arrived in the United States in 2020, was arrested for causing the death of five people and injuring several others after crashing the truck he was driving into a line of vehicles on Interstate 20 in Texas on Saturday afternoon.

The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) reported that González Companioni, 27, allegedly fell asleep at the wheel while driving an 18-wheeler on I-20, near Terrell, east of Dallas, and crashed into several vehicles in stopped traffic, resulting in a chain reaction crash that claimed the lives of five people.

The tragic incident occurred around 2:40 p.m. in the westbound lanes of I-20 and forced the highway to close for several hours.

González Companioni was initially charged with five counts of involuntary manslaughter and one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, confirmed the Texas Department of Public Safety.

The Kaufman County Sheriff's Office added three more charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon on July 1, according to jail records, bringing the total to nine charges against the individual.

The Cuban driver crashed his cargo truck into a Ford F-150 pickup truck carrying five family members, resulting in the immediate deaths of four of them. A fifth person, who was in a Jeep Compass, later died in the hospital to which she was transferred, reported the television channel WFAA citing official reports.

The victims were identified as Zabar McKellar, 52 years old; Krishaun McKellar, 45; Kason McKellar, 16; Billy McKellar, 79; and Nicole Gregory, 49 years old.

The Terrell Volunteer Fire Department reported that several people involved in the traffic accident suffered "minor injuries." According to a report from Telemundo Dallas, the fifth occupant of the Ford F-150 was airlifted to the hospital in critical condition and later died.

Although initially, the DPS had reported that six people had died in the incident, a spokesman for that agency assured WFAA on Tuesday that the fatalities were five, and that the earlier figure was reported in error based on conflicting information.

The Texas Department of Public Safety explained that the accident involved seven vehicles: three 18-wheeler trucks and four passenger vehicles. According to their preliminary investigation, traffic on the highway was congested due to a prior accident.

According to the DPS statement, González Companioni crashed the tractor truck into the F-150 pickup, which then collided with another 18-wheeler, causing it to strike a third vehicle. One of the trucks veered from the right lane into the left and hit a Jeep Compass, which subsequently collided with a Ford Mustang. A Honda Civic was also affected.

González Companioni told the police that he had fallen asleep while driving and woke up to a "loud bang," according to the arrest report.

The investigation into the tragic incident is ongoing. Additionally, on Monday, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced the opening of a safety investigation regarding the accident.

The controversial history of Alexis Osmani González Companioni

Before emigrating first to Spain and then to the United States in 2020, González Companioni appeared to have a "promising future" as a political figure of the Cuban regime in the province of Villa Clara, as can be inferred from official publications and social media.

He became president of the Student Federation University (FEU) at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Central University of Las Villas, and his "merits" as a Communist militant led to his election as a member of the Provincial Committee of the Young Communist Union (UJC) in Villa Clara.

In a photo published on the X (formerly Twitter) account of UJC UCLV, in February of the same year that González Companioni left the country, he is seen smiling while wearing a sweater from the Cuban Communist Youth Congress; while in another, also from social media, he appears receiving a diploma featuring the image of the dictator Fidel Castro.

The digital newspaper Cubanos por el mundo was the one that reported five years ago on the presence of González Companioni in Florida.

A note published in November 2020 revealed that the Cuban, who holds Spanish citizenship, entered the U.S. with an ESTA visa, which only allows for temporary stays of 90 days.

However, protected by this visa exemption program, he entered the country “falsely declaring that he had no intention of staying,” but settled in Miami and never returned to Cuba.

Cubans around the world reported this Wednesday that, “according to U.S. immigration law (8 U.S. Code § 1182), members of foreign communist parties are inadmissible to the country” and “so are those who lie to obtain visas or immigration benefits.” However, González Companioni was “driving a trailer with a commercial license in the United States.”

It is unclear whether the Cuban was staying illegally in the U.S. or had regularized his immigration status in the country. There is also no information on how he obtained a commercial driver's license (CDL) to work as a driver.

His case reignites outrage and controversy within the Cuban exile community regarding the entry and residency in the U.S. of individuals directly linked to the Cuban regime, including former high-ranking officials and members of the Communist Party and government institutions, former officials of the Ministry of the Interior, the Armed Forces, and judges involved in the repression on the island.

Another tragedy in memory

The accident caused by González Companioni brings to mind the case of another Cuban truck driver, Rogel Aguilera Mederos, who was found guilty for the incident he caused on a highway in Colorado on April 25, 2019, as a result of which four people died.

At the age of 23, Aguilera Mederos was driving a tractor-trailer loaded with wood at speeds of up to 85 mph (approximately 137 km/h) when he triggered a chain reaction crash and an explosion that ignited 26 cars. He claimed he tried to slow down when the truck's brakes failed, but while going down a hill, he collided with the highway traffic.

According to the prosecution, the mass accident was the result of a series of poor decisions made by the driver, who was sentenced to 110 years in prison in December 2021.

Days later, the governor of Colorado, Jared Polis, deemed the sentence "unfair" and "disproportionate" and reduced it from 110 to 10 years.

In the commutation letter, he told the Cuban: “You were sentenced to 110 years in prison, effectively more than a life sentence, for a tragic but unintentional act. (...) Although you are not blameless, your sentence is disproportionate compared to many other inmates in our criminal justice system who committed intentional, premeditated, or violent crimes.”

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