LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – A Lubbock family is demanding justice after three people were arrested in connection with a crash that killed a 19-year-old man and seriously injured his girlfriend.
Three people have been arrested in connection with the February crash that killed Sean Canales. Two young men were charged with tampering with evidence. This week, another young man was arrested for failing to stop and render aid.
Canales’ mother, Rose, says Sean always knew he wanted to own a motorcycle. While his mother wouldn’t buy him one, she respected his wishes. Last year he saved up enough money to buy one.
“There was nothing I could have done, his grandparents could have done, his stepdad could have done to get him to not get a bike. He was stuck on it,” Canales said. “And I’m like, okay, you know, just all I can do is just pray. I ask him to pray every day before he got on that bike. And he did.”
She saw him pray with his girlfriend before they went for a ride the night he was killed in a crash.
“It’s hard for me to go through these pictures. This is all I have left of him,” Canales said.
Canales said she’ll never forget the moment the doctor told her he didn’t make it.
“I remember falling to the floor, screaming,” she said.
She was also worried about Sean’s girlfriend, Maisie Casares, who was on the back of his bike that night.
“I broke my whole lumbar, my L1 through L5, and then seven ribs, had a TBI. And I was in a coma for 13 days. I broke my ulna. Had a feeding tube, chest tube and all the things. I don’t know. I would have went through it all again if it meant Sean was here, too,” Casares said.
Canales was told her son drove into a guardrail on the Marsha Sharp near 29th Street.
“While we were at the hospital, the detectives came in and kind of told us what was going on. Again, we were told that it was just one vehicle, which is him by himself that caused the crash, hit the guardrail. I asked the detective, well, where’s his GoPro? He’s like, what GoPro? I was like, my son has a GoPro,” she said.
She said investigators told her they couldn’t find one at the scene.
A video was eventually turned into police, leading them to question Thomas Threet and Payton Martin.
The offense report shows Threet admitted to being at the crash and taking the GoPro from the scene. He told police he and others went to Payton Martin’s house, where Martin admitted to destroying the SD card with footage of the crash. They were both arrested and charged with tampering with evidence.
“You deleted evidence. So that clearly tells me that to me, it was intentional. It was personal. If nothing happened, you wouldn’t have took his GoPro. You wouldn’t have deleted it. You wouldn’t have destroyed it. If you were innocent, you would have used that to defend you. But you didn’t,” Canales said.
Ryan Gibson is one of the other people mentioned in the offense report. This week he was arrested for two charges of failure to stop and render aid.
“No innocent person runs from a crime. No innocent person runs from a crime. And no innocent person will send two people back to get evidence of the crime,” Casares said.
Casares said she’s seen comments online claiming Sean was speeding and even that he was trying to take his own life.
“It’s just disgusting. It kind of, it makes you mad. It was really heartbreaking because Sean didn’t deserve that and what people say about him,” Casares said.
“I just want the truth to be out. My son didn’t cause this crash,” Canales said.
Canales said she feels like a dead person walking without her son.
“My family, my kids, my partner, they didn’t just lose one person. They lost two. When I was told that he didn’t survive, I felt like a huge piece of my heart died,” she said.
Sean now won’t get to be a dad, husband or uncle. Casares is heading off to college without him in the fall.
“Ryan took a lot from us that night and took our future and what we had in that moment. It just sucks,” Casares said.
Canales said while she wants justice, no outcome will be enough.
“No matter what the outcome is, it’s never going to be enough for me. Because nothing that happens is going to bring him back,” she said.
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