Christina Hernandez has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to intoxication manslaughter with a vehicle and failure to render aid in a deadly October 2021 hit-and-run. The victim, 20-year-old Jacoby Springfield, was legally crossing 82nd Street at Avenue U when Hernandez blew through a red light, hit him, and kept right on going—because apparently stopping was optional that day.
Springfield was rushed to University Medical Center with serious injuries, where he later died. Hernandez didn’t make it far before Lubbock police stopped her vehicle on East Slaton Highway and arrested her. Justice, as it so often does, took its time—more than three years—to arrive with a sentence and 71 days of jail credit.
In court, Jacoby’s mother, Tara Van Steenburgh, delivered a victim impact statement that did what no press release ever can: remind everyone that this wasn’t just a “traffic incident,” but a permanent rupture in someone’s life. She described the loss as a “cosmic shift,” a grief that can’t be fixed, appealed, or time-served away.
So now Hernandez gets 15 years in TDCJ to reflect on a moment that lasted seconds, while a family gets a lifetime of empty chairs and unanswered what-ifs. Another reminder that in Lubbock, crossing legally at a crosswalk can still be a lethal gamble—especially when someone else decides the rules don’t apply to them.
Fifteen years might feel like a long sentence—unless you’re the family who never gets their kid back.
https://www.everythinglubbock.com/news/local-news/lubbock-driver-pleads-guilty/
https://www.kcbd.com/2026/01/05/lubbock-woman-sentenced-15-years-fatal-hit-and-run/