Overview
- Police say 60-year-old Daniel Ruiz crashed a Toyota 4Runner into a stopped tow truck on the southbound feeder of the Gulf Freeway near Clear Lake City Boulevard.
- The 5-year-old girl riding in the front passenger seat was not properly restrained and was pronounced dead at a hospital, according to investigators.
- Ruiz is jailed in Harris County on a manslaughter charge tied to the child’s death, court records show.
- A judge set bond at $150,000 and ordered Ruiz to wear a GPS monitor if he posts bond, according to ABC13’s review of the court file.
- Records show Ruiz is serving four years of deferred adjudication from a December 2024 case for leaving a 4-year-old alone in a car after drinking and gambling, and ABC13 reports Ruiz’s relationship to the 5-year-old has not been disclosed.