Provided/Harris County Precinct 5 Constable’s Office
A Tesla Model 3 crashed through the front of a Katy home on June 19, 2026, killing one.
A manslaughter charge has been filed against a man who was behind the wheel of a Tesla when it crashed into a Houston-area home last month, killing a 76-year-old woman who was inside.
Michael Butler, 44, of Richmond, was arrested Wednesday and booked into the Harris County Jail on the felony charge, according to county court records and Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez. Butler had told authorities in the aftermath of the June 19 crash that his Tesla Model 3 was in autopilot mode when the vehicle crashed into a home in Katy, where Martha Avila was fatally struck in the collision.
A defense attorney for Butler was not listed in online court records as of Thursday morning.
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Avila’s daughter and son-in-law have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Butler and Tesla, the Austin-based electric vehicle company owned by technology mogul Elon Musk. In social media posts after the crash, Musk and another Tesla executive disputed the claim the vehicle was in autopilot mode.
“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,” Ashok Elluswamy, the vice president of AI software at Tesla, wrote on social media. “They reached a speed of 73 mph during the crash, and had the accelerator pressed even after the crash.”
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office, in a news release about the crash, said Butler “stated he was operating with an automated driving assistance system engaged at the time of the crash.” The man “failed to drive in a single lane, left the roadway, and struck the residence,” according to the sheriff’s office, which also said the man showed “no signs of intoxication” and was cooperative with responding authorities.