A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against H‑E‑B and its contracted trucking companies after a crash on US Highway 87 last November killed four women from the Houston area.
The lawsuit, filed in Bexar County on Dec. 23, 2025, names H‑E‑B, Parkway Transit, Scrappy Trucking, and the driver, Guadalupe Villarreal, as defendants.
The victims—Lakeisha Brown, 19, Myunique Johnson, 20, Taylor White, 27, and Breanna Brantley, 30—were traveling south on US 87 when their car slowed due to a flat tire.
According to the complaint, Villarreal was driving an 18-wheeler hauling H‑E‑B merchandise and struck the back of the vehicle. The impact sent the car across lanes of traffic and flipped the truck onto its side.
Attorneys for the families allege Villarreal was speeding, distracted, and failed to control his truck. They also claim the companies were negligent in hiring, training, and supervising the driver and did not properly maintain the vehicle.
In an interview with KPRC 2’s Paige Hubbard, attorney Rodney Jones, who represents the families of the women killed, described the crash as a “heart‑wrenching” tragedy that he says could have been avoided.
“This is an incredibly heart‑wrenching story of four young women who had their entire lives in front of them. One of my clients was a minor, 19 years old, on her way to college, just graduated high school,“ Jones said. “I do not think there is ever such a thing as closure for a tragic loss like this that could have been avoided. Ultimately, they want justice.”
The families are seeking more than $1 million in damages and have requested a court order to preserve the truck, the driver’s phone, and other electronic data as evidence while the case moves forward.
“One of the things we are going to be asking for is dash cam footage so we can get a better idea of whether he was unconscious, asleep, or just distracted and texting. We do not know, and we will not speculate, but we do know anybody driving an 80,000‑pound truck should be aware of what is going on on the road.”
H-E-B provided a comment on the lawsuit to our sister station, KSAT.
“Our H-E-B Family is devastated by this tragic accident, which resulted in the loss of the young women involved. The incident involved a third-party vendor driver, not an H-E-B Partner. H-E-B and the contractor are fully cooperating with the investigation.”