{"id":172121,"date":"2026-02-20T00:05:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T00:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/172121\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T00:05:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T00:05:12","slug":"judge-reduces-bond-for-woman-charged-in-el-paso-educators-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/172121\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge reduces bond for woman charged in El Paso educator’s death"},"content":{"rendered":"

An El Paso magistrate judge reduced the bond for a woman charged with intoxicated manslaughter<\/a> in the death of an El Paso educator<\/a>.<\/p>\n

El Paso County Magistrate Judge Antonio Aun\u00a0granted a bond reduction to Aurora Morales, 62,<\/a>\u00a0during a teleconference bond hearing on Thursday, Feb. 19. Morales’ bond was reduced from $250,000 to $100,000.<\/p>\n

\"Aurora<\/p>\n

Aurora Morales<\/p>\n

Morales is facing one count of intoxicated manslaughter with a vehicle in connection with the Feb. 7 death of Ana Maria Paniagua, 57.<\/p>\n

Paniagua offered Morales a ride home as she believed Morales was going to drive drunk. As Morales tried to move seats in her truck, the truck ran over Paniagua. She later died in a hospital.<\/p>\n

Morales was a paraprofessional,<\/a> a teaching assistant, at Jefferson High School in the El Paso Independent School District, officials said.<\/p>\n

More: ‘Always putting others first:’ El Paso educator dies trying to stop alleged drunk driver<\/a><\/p>\n

Public defender Frank Chelly, who is representing Morales, argued that the bond should be reduced because the incident was an accident, Morales is not a threat to the El Paso community and she is not a flight risk.<\/p>\n

“The nature of the circumstances of the offense is what is really an accident,” Chelly said. “There is no threat to the community at large.”<\/p>\n

He added that Morales has lived in El Paso her whole life, is disabled and is receiving home care. She receives only $1,000 from Social Security, so she cannot afford the $250,000 bond.<\/p>\n

More: El Paso fatal crash tracker 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Assistant District Attorney Ada Nwaneri opposed the bond reduction, citing Morales’ prior criminal history, including a misdemeanor theft conviction. She was convicted of theft and sentenced to 10 days in jail in 2004, court records show.<\/p>\n

Several other past charges against Morales, including injury to a child or elderly, aggravated assault and other theft charges, were dismissed, Nwaneri said during the bond hearing.<\/p>\n

Aun reduced the bond and set several bond conditions. The conditions include reporting to a bond officer in person weekly, she can not drink or violate any laws while out on bond, and if she drives, she is required to install a breathalyzer in her vehicle.<\/p>\n

Morales arrested on intoxicated manslaughter charge<\/p>\n

The fatal Feb. 7 incident started after Paniagua and her daughter saw Morales in front of her house, appearing to need assistance.\u00a0They pulled over to help her Morales.<\/p>\n

Morales was looking for her dog at the time, Nwaneri said. Paniagua and her daughter helped Morales get back into her house.<\/p>\n

\"Ana<\/p>\n

Ana Maria Paniagua, 57, right, died after a vehicle ran her over as she attempted to help an alleged drunk driver on Feb. 7, 2026, in the 7800 block of North Loop Drive in El Paso’s Lower Valley.<\/p>\n

Morales told Paniagua that she was drinking that day in “an attempt to forget the passing of her son,” on the eighth anniversary of his death, a complaint affidavit states.<\/p>\n

Paniagua and her daughter left to continue selling Girl Scout cookies, Nwaneri said.<\/p>\n

More: El Paso woman arrested on intoxicated manslaughter charge in fatal crash<\/a><\/p>\n

They later returned to Morales’ house to check on her and saw that her truck was gone. Paniagua and her daughter drove around the area looking for Morales.<\/p>\n

They found Morales inside her 1999 Ford F350 pickup truck in the parking lot of Juanito’s Liquor Store in the 7800 block of North Loop Drive in the Lower Valley.<\/p>\n

Paniagua offered to drive Morales home. As Morales tried to switch seats, she released the brake and the truck rolled back, the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

Paniagua became trapped by the front left tire, which rolled over her midsection, the affidavit states. Paniagua died from her injuries at Del Sol Medical Center.<\/p>\n

More: El Paso women die after being struck by vehicles in separate crashes<\/a><\/p>\n

Morales told police officers she was reversing and never saw Paniagua, the affidavit states.<\/p>\n

Officers conducted a field sobriety test on Morales, which she failed. Morales was arrested on suspicion of intoxicated manslaughter with a vehicle. She was booked into the El Paso County Jail on Feb. 9.<\/p>\n

Aaron Martinez covers the criminal justice system for the El Paso Times. He may be reached at amartinez1@elpasotimes.com.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso judge reduces bond for woman charged in educator’s death<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An El Paso magistrate judge reduced the bond for a woman charged with intoxicated manslaughter in the death…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[68997,68996,138,1060,140,30614,139,28368,68999],"class_list":["post-172121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-ana-maria-paniagua","tag-aurora-morales","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-county","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-independent-school-district","tag-el-paso-news","tag-intoxicated-manslaughter","tag-paniagua"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}