Ulise Delao pleaded guilty Monday to manslaughter in the May 2024 death of Brittany Torres, resolving the case just as it was scheduled to go before a jury.
Delao, 31, was sentenced to five years in a Texas Department of Criminal Justice facility, with credit for time already served in jail. No fine was assessed.
Delao was remanded into the custody of the sheriff following the plea.
The case had been scheduled for a jury trial Monday morning in Judge Titiana Frausto’s 181st District Court. Instead, a plea agreement reached after discussions between prosecutors, the defense and Torres’s family brought the case to a close without a trial.
Assistant District Attorney Lacy Miller said the defense approached prosecutors with a plea offer last week. The district attorney’s office then met with Torres’s family to discuss the potential benefits and risks of accepting the agreement compared with taking the case before a jury.
The charge dates back to May 27, 2024, when Canyon police responded to a crash at about 1 a.m.
According to information previously released by the Canyon Police Department, Delao was accused of striking Torres with his vehicle. Torres was pronounced dead at the scene.
Torres was the mother of Delao’s child.
Delao was later indicted on two charges: manslaughter and intoxication manslaughter with a vehicle.
Miller said that if the case had proceeded to trial, Delao could have been convicted of only one of the two charges. Prosecutors included both counts to give jurors additional options when considering the evidence and reaching a verdict.
The guilty plea to manslaughter eliminated the uncertainty that would have come with a jury trial and ensured Delao would receive a prison sentence.
Miller said prosecutors were prepared to take the case to a jury if that was what the family wanted. Once the defense presented the plea proposal, however, prosecutors discussed the possible outcomes with Torres’s family and allowed them to weigh those considerations before deciding how to proceed.
For prosecutors and Torres’s loved ones, Monday’s plea provides a legal conclusion to the case, though it cannot undo the loss at its center.
