{"id":358537,"date":"2026-07-02T12:40:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T12:40:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/358537\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T12:40:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T12:40:54","slug":"tesla-driver-arrested-charged-after-fatal-crash-into-texas-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/358537\/","title":{"rendered":"Tesla driver arrested, charged after fatal crash into Texas home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Butler, 44, was booked into the Harris County Jail Wednesday and charged with manslaughter, records show. His first appearance in court is set for Monday.<\/p>\n

Martha Avila, 76, died after a Tesla Model 3 carrying Butler crashed into the family’s home on June 19.\u00a0Avila’s family, Jennifer and Justin Barbour, filed a civil lawsuit against Tesla and Butler<\/a> on June 24. That same week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched a special investigation into the crash.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Barbours allege in their lawsuit that Tesla\u2019s driver assistance systems \u2014 which they say Butler had engaged at the time of the crash \u2014 had a known history of danger. The\u00a0Barbours are seeking more than $1 million in relief from the defendants and requesting a jury trial, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

The day of the crash, Avila was inside the Barbours’ home with her grandchildren enjoying a day \u201cfilled with laughter and good company \u2014 until a two-ton Tesla came barreling through the front wall of her home,\u201d the lawsuit states.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Barbours accuse Tesla of marketing the driver assistance systems as safe despite knowing the danger the systems can present. In a post on X,\u00a0Elon Musk cast doubt<\/a> on his company’s driver assistance technology playing a role in the crash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Butler, 44, was booked into the Harris County Jail Wednesday and charged with manslaughter, records show. His…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-358537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358537","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=358537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}