A Texas man behind the wheel of a Tesla that struck a home and killed a woman has been arrested and charged with manslaughter, according to Harris County court documents.
On July 1, Michael Butler, 44, was charged with manslaughter for the death of 76-year-old Marsha Avila, Harris County court documents state. In mid-June, Butler, behind the wheel of the Telsa, crashed into Avila’s home, striking her and ultimately killing her. As of July 7, Butler remains in the Harris County Jail under a $150,000 bond, according to court documents.
Andrew Herreth, Butler’s defense lawyer, told USA TODAY the team has no comment about the charges.
Martha Avila, 76, died on Friday, June 19, 2026 after a Tesla drove into her home in Kathy, Texas.
What happened?
On the evening of June 19, Butler, who said he was using the Tesla Model 3’s automated driving assistance system, drove off the road and crashed into Avila’s home in Katy, Texas, a Houston suburb, according to a Harris County Sheriff’s Office news release. Avila was life flighted to a local hospital where she succumbed to her injuries. The sheriff’s office determined Butler was not intoxicated.
Surveillance footage captured by a camera on the affected home, shared by Avila’s daughter Jennifer Barbour on Facebook, shows the vehicle flying off the road before striking the home.
Barbour told Houston television station KHOU 11 she was in the backyard at the time of the crash. She found her husband and children before discovering her mother had been struck.
Family files wrongful death lawsuit
Jennifer and Justin Barbour, the daughter and son-in-law of Avila, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Tesla and Butler on June 23, according to Harris County court documents.
“Lawsuits lead to an investigation. No lawsuit, no answers. I want to know what happened,” Jennifer told USA TODAY on July 7.
As of July 7, the prosecuting legal team has contacted Tesla in hopes to receive a “collision snapshot” from the incident, Ryan Zehl, personal injury lawyer with representation Zehl & Associates in Houston, told USA TODAY. This forensic data is uploaded to Tesla’s servers after a “significant crash,” he explained. The legal team has also reached out to Butler and has not heard back from either defendant, Zehl said.
Elon Musk is pictured May 14 as he leaves a welcome ceremony for U.S. President Donald Trump with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China.
In the days following the incident, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the crash “makes no sense.”
“(Full self-driving) drives slowly through neighborhood streets and this was a high speed crash,” he wrote in an X post on June 22.
Tesla Director of Tesla’s Autopilot Software Ashok Elluswamy also chimed in on X.
“In this case, the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100% of the accel pedal in this residential area,” Elluswamy wrote. “They reached a speed of 73 mph during the crash, and had the accelerator pressed even after the crash.”
Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at USA TODAY. Story idea? Email her at gcross@usatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY Unlimited Use: Texas man charged with manslaughter in Tesla crash that killed woman